Did You Know...
...that the x-ray was discovered purely by accident? When German physicist Wilhelm Konrad von Roentgen was experimenting with cathode rays in 1895, he put an activated Crookes tube in a book and went out to lunch. When he returned, he discovered that a key that had also been placed in the book showed up as an image on the developed film!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7933651 | Cardiac template generation based on patient response information Cardiac treatment methods and devices provide for templates representative of past tachyarrhythmia events, each template associated with a therapy. Methods involve providing a cardiac waveform representative of a patient's cardiac activity and identifying a portion ... | 04/26/2011 |
| 7865241 | System and method for cardiac rhythm management with synchronized pacing protection period A device and method for cardiac rhythm management in which a heart chamber is paced in accordance with a pacing mode that employs sense signals from the opposite chamber. A protection period triggered by the sensing of intrinsic activity in the paced chamber is used... | 01/04/2011 |
| 7463925 | Methods and systems for promoting ventricular pacing A device and method for multi chamber pacing a patient's heart having heart failure and intrinsic conduction, wherein ventricular tracking is used to pace the ventricle when the sinus rate exceeds a preset atrial maximum tracking rate. The ventricular tracking pacem... | 12/09/2008 |
| 7440802 | System and method for managing refractory periods in a cardiac rhythm management device with biventricular sensing A method and system for managing refractory periods in a cardiac rhythm management device configured for biventricular or biatrial sensing. Refractory periods for each channel of the pacemaker are provided by interval timers that are triggered by sensed or paced eve... | 10/21/2008 |
| 7403818 | System and method for cardiac rhythm management with synchronized pacing protection period A device and method for cardiac rhythm management in which a heart chamber is paced in accordance with a pacing mode that employs sense signals from the opposite chamber. A protection period triggered by the sensing of intrinsic activity in the paced chamber is used... | 07/22/2008 |
| 7392083 | System and method for timing synchronized pacing A device and method for cardiac rhythm management in which a heart chamber is paced in accordance with sense signals from the opposite chamber or other distant cardiac site. The method is particularly useful in delivering cardiac resynchronization therapy. ... | 06/24/2008 |
| 7392088 | Capture detection for multi-chamber pacing Multi-chamber pacing may result in capture of one chamber, capture of multiple chambers, fusion, or non-capture. Approaches for detecting various capture conditions during multi-chamber pacing are described. Pacing pulses are delivered to left and right heart chambe... | 06/24/2008 |
| 7373203 | Cardiac rhythm management system with prevention of double counting of events A cardiac rhythm management system recognizes patterns of interval durations, distinguishing between events in different heart chambers even though signals associated with those different heart chambers are processed using a commonly shared sensing circuit. A therap... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7363078 | Intracardiac polarization signal stabilization Polarization signals, which represent voltages measured at a pacemaker electrode, are not constant and may drift. Polarization signal drift, which often precedes undesirable pace polarization artifacts, is more significant when the pacemaker is inhibited from provid... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7363081 | System and method for providing preventive overdrive pacing and antitachycardia pacing using an implantable cardiac stimulation device Techniques for enabling both preventive overdrive pacing and antitachycardia pacing (ATP) within an implantable device are provided. The device gains the benefits of overdrive pacing for preventing the onset of a tachycardia and, if one nevertheless occurs, ATP is e... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7349737 | Adjustment of the atrial sensitivity and of the atrial stimulation energy in an active implantable medical device such as double chamber cardiac pacemaker An active implantable medical device, such as a double chamber pacemaker or defibrillator or cardiovertor, having an improved adjustment of atrial sensitivity and of atrial stimulation energy. This device includes control algorithms for suspecting a loss of atrial d... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7328066 | Implantable cardiac stimulation device, system and method that identifies and prevents impending arrhythmias of the atria An implantable cardiac stimulation device includes a system that identifies and prevents the occurrence of impending atrial arrhythmias. A sensing circuit senses atrial activity of a patient's heart to provide an atrial activity signal. A processor compares the atri... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7317942 | Dynamic discrimination utilizing anti-tachy pacing therapy in an implantable medical device A method and medical device for discriminating an arrhythmia that includes an input circuit sensing cardiac signals and a microprocessor identifying an event associated with the sensed cardiac signals as a first arrhythmia event. A first circuit delivers a first the... | 01/08/2008 |
| 7305265 | Heart treatment equipment for treating heart failure In a heart treatment equipment provided with a stimulating mechanism for both the ventricles, the both ventricle stimulation is made optimized in order to inhibit the decrease of the cardiac output when a heart rate increase or the vagus nerve stimulation is perform... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7292887 | Apparatus and method for spatially and temporally distributing cardiac electrical stimulation A cardiac electro-stimulatory device and method for operating same in which stimulation pulses are distributed among a plurality of electrodes fixed at different sites of the myocardium in order to reduce myocardial hypertrophy brought about by repeated pacing at a ... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7292886 | Bifocal cardiac stimulation device and methods A cardiac stimulation system for implantation in a patient is disclosed. The cardiac stimulation system comprises first and second electrodes configured for positioning in a bifocal arrangement. A first lead system is adapted for carrying the first and second electr... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7289849 | Atrial pacing therapy for treating mitral regurgitation A method and apparatus are disclosed for treating mitral regurgitation with electrical stimulation. By providing pacing stimulation to the left atrium during ventricular systole, a beneficial effect is obtained which can prevent or reduce the extent of mitral regurg... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7286878 | Multiplexed electrode array extension An apparatus and method for selectively interacting with electrically excitable tissue of a patient are provided. The apparatus includes an implantable pulse generator having a number of output sources that transmit pulse signals. An extension unit couples the impla... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7272438 | Mode switching heart stimulation apparatus and method In a heart stimulation device a mode of operation is switched in response to detection of atrial tachyarrhythmia such as atrial fibrillation. The stimulation device may initially operate in a normal mode of pacing then, upon detection of atrial tachyarrhythmia, the ... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7266411 | Implantable cardiac stimulation device and method providing dynamic sensing configurations for bichamber stimulation and tachyarrhythmia detection An implantable cardiac stimulation device provides bichamber pacing and dynamic bichamber and single chamber sensing. The device includes a sensing circuit that senses activity of a heart, a lead system coupled to a plurality of chambers of the heart, and a cardiac ... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7257443 | Method and apparatus for detecting oscillations in cardiac rhythm with electrogram signals A cardiac rhythm management device is configured to detect oscillations in cardiac rhythm by comparing electrogram signals during successive heart beats. Upon detection of electrical alternans, the device may adjust its operating behavior to compensate for the delet... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7257442 | Mode switching algorithm for AV block An apparatus and method is presented for treating patients with sinus node dysfunction who have apparently normal intrinsic AV conduction and thus do not require ventricular pacing unless there is an unexpected AV conduction failure. In one embodiment, a cardiac dev... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7254441 | Fully inhibited dual chamber pacing mode A pacing mode is provided, in one embodiment, that permits missed or skipped ventricular beats. The mode monitors a full cardiac cycle (A-A interval) for the presence of intrinsic ventricular activity. If ventricular activity is present, a flag is set that is valid ... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7251526 | Active implantable medical device of the defibrillator, cardiovertor and/or antitachycardia pacemaker type, having a high maximum frequency for antibradycardia stimulation An active implantable medical device of the defibrillator, cardiovertor and/or antitachycardia pacemaker type having a high maximum frequency for antibradycardia stimulation. This device provides antibradycardia stimulation at a stimulation frequency that has a prog... | 07/31/2007 |
| 7239914 | Rate smoothing control A rate smoothing function used in implantable pulse generators uses detected triggering events, which cause the rate smoothing function to be activated or deactivated, and detected parameter adjusting events, which cause parameter(s) of the rate smoothing function t... | 07/03/2007 |
| 7239916 | Method and apparatus for automatic implantable medical lead recognition and configuration An automated identification and configuration system for use with an implantable medical device (IMD) is disclosed. The system includes a first communication circuit that is attached to, or otherwise carried by, a detachable component associated with the IMD such as... | 07/03/2007 |
| 7233824 | Secure and efficacious therapy delivery for an extra-systolic stimulation pacing engine An extra-systolic stimulation (ESS) therapy addresses cardiac dysfunction including heart failure. ESS therapy employs atrial and/or ventricular extra-systoles via pacing-level stimulation to a heart. These extra-systoles must be timed correctly to achieve beneficia... | 06/19/2007 |
| 7231253 | IMD connector header with grommet retainer An implantable medical device (IMD) includes a connector header for making electrical and mechanical connections with a proximal connector assembly of an electrical medical lead and includes a retainer for retaining a penetrable grommet within a header grommet apert... | 06/12/2007 |
| 7231249 | Methods, apparatus, and systems for multiple stimulation from a single stimulator Methods, apparatus, and systems are provided to stimulate multiple sites in a heart. A controller senses electrical activity associated with sinus rhythm of the heart. A signal generator is configured to generate an electrical signal for stimulating the heart. Based... | 06/12/2007 |
| 7215998 | Synchronous pacemaker with AV interval optimization A system and method for use in an implanted cardiac pacing device, whereby an optimal AV delay is determined at or near lower rate (pacing) limit (LRL) by determining measuring the variance, or instability, of the QT interval for a set of intervals. In one embodimen... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7212857 | Implantable cardiac device for restoring inter-chamber synchrony and method An implantable cardiac device returns activations of corresponding right and left chambers of a heart to inter-chamber synchrony. A sensing circuit senses intracardiac signals representing right and left chamber ventricular electrical activity. A detector determines... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7190245 | Multi-stable micro electromechanical switches and methods of fabricating same A micro electromechanical (MEMS) switch suitable for use in medical devices is provided, along with methods of producing and using MEMS switches. In one aspect, a micro electromechanical switch including a moveable member configured to electrically cooperate with a ... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7191001 | System and method for managing refractory periods in a cardiac rhythm management device with biventricular sensing A method and system for managing refractory periods in a cardiac rhythm management device configured for biventricular or biatrial sensing. Refractory periods for each channel of the pacemaker are provided by interval timers that are triggered by sensed or paced eve... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7191002 | Anti-tachycardia pacing methods and devices An improved method and device for performing anti-tachycardia pacing (ATP) to convert a ventricular tachycardia (VT) to normal sinus rhythm. Pairs of pacing/sensing electrodes are placed in or on each of the left and right ventricles. Each pair of electrodes is shor... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7187972 | Bi-ventricular pacing in the face of rapidly conducting atrial tachyarrhythmia Methods and devices (e.g., pacemakers or ICDs with pacemaker functions) are provided for maintaining a high percentage of bi-ventricular pacing after a pacemaker switches from an atrial tracking bi-ventricular pacing mode to a non-atrial tracking bi-ventricular paci... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7184834 | Method and apparatus for improving specificity of atrial tachycardia detection techniques in dual-unipolar or dual-bipolar implantable cardiac stimulation systems Techniques are provided for allowing Automatic Mode Switching (AMS) to be exploited within dual unipolar systems employing Combipolar sensing. Relative refractory windows are opened within both the atrial and ventricular refractory periods for the purposes of determ... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7184816 | Cardiac stimulating and detecting device, system and method for identifying far field signals In an implantable heart stimulating device, system and method, a control circuit has first and second circuits for sensing and pacing. The first circuit can be connected to a first electrode member suited to be positioned in or at a first ventricle of the heart. The... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7181282 | Implantable cardiac device with PVC density monitoring, and therapy control and method An implantable cardiac device provides a learned premature ventricular contraction density function responsive to detected premature ventricular contractions. A current premature ventricular contraction density is then compared to the learned premature ventricular c... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7181281 | ICD using MEMS for optimal therapy An exemplary method includes detecting movement of an in vivo oscillator using one or more in vivo sensors, receiving information from at least one of the one or more sensors, and deciding whether to switch an implanted cardiac therapy device from a lower tier of an... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7181278 | Apparatus and method for ventricular rate regularization A cardiac rhythm management device which employs pacing therapy to regularize the ventricular rhythm. Such ventricular rate regularization may be employed within bradycardia pacemakers, ventricular resynchronization devices, or implantable cardioverter/defibrillator... | 02/20/2007 |
