Implantable system for stimulating a human heart or an animal heart

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11672987-B2
Application number	US-202016825678-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 20, 2020
Priority date	Apr 18, 2019
Publication date	Jun 13, 2023
Grant date	Jun 13, 2023

Abstract

An implantable system stimulates a human or animal heart. The system contains a processor, a memory unit, an atrial stimulation unit, a ventricular stimulation unit, and a detection unit for detecting atrial tachycardia. The memory unit stores a computer-readable program that prompts the processor to: a) detect by the detection unit whether atrial tachycardia to be treated is present in the heart; b) when atrial tachycardia to be treated is present, carrying out a ventricular conditioning stimulation by way of the ventricular stimulation unit; and c) applying atrial antitachycardia pacing in the form of a stimulation pulse sequence of 2 to 20 pulses or a high-frequency burst having a frequency of up to 50 Hz and a duration of up to 60 seconds by way of the atrial stimulation unit as the ventricular conditioning stimulation is being carried out and/or thereafter.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An implantable system for stimulating a human heart or an animal heart, the implantable system comprising:
a processor;
an atrial stimulation unit;
a ventricular stimulation unit;
a first detection unit for detecting atrial tachycardia to be treated;
a memory unit storing a computer-readable program, the computer-readable program prompting said processor to carry out the following steps when the computer-readable program is being executed on said processor:
detecting by way of said first detection unit whether the atrial tachycardia to be treated is present in the human heart or the animal heart;
carrying out a ventricular conditioning stimulation by way of the ventricular stimulation unit when the atrial tachycardia to be treated is present; and
applying atrial antitachycardia pacing in a form of a stimulation pulse sequence of 2 to 20 pulses or a high-frequency burst having a frequency of up to 50 Hz by way of said atrial stimulation unit as the ventricular conditioning stimulation is being carried out and/or thereafter, wherein the atrial antitachycardia pacing has a duration of up to 60 seconds.

2. The implantable system according to claim 1 , wherein the atrial stimulation unit is configured to apply the atrial antitachycardia pacing in a form of electrical stimulation or in a form of optical stimulation.

3. The implantable system according to claim 1 , wherein the computer-readable program prompts said processor to carry out the ventricular conditioning stimulation in a form of right ventricular overdrive pacing.

4. The implantable system according to claim 1 , wherein the computer-readable program prompts said processor to carry out the ventricular conditioning stimulation in a form of left ventricular overdrive pacing.

5. The implantable system according to claim 1 , wherein the computer-readable program prompts said processor to carry out the ventricular conditioning stimulation in a form of biventricular overdrive pacing.

6. The implantable system according to claim 5 , wherein the computer-readable program prompts said processor to carry out the ventricular conditioning stimulation in a form of biventricular overdrive pacing with a VV delay.

7. The implantable system according to claim 1 , wherein the computer-readable program prompts said processor to make an adjustment for carrying out the ventricular conditioning stimulation, and wherein the adjustment is at least one action selected from the group consisting of setting an intensity of the ventricular conditioning stimulation, setting a VV delay, delivering additional ventricular stimuli, and setting alternative ventricular stimulation vectors.

8. The implantable system according to claim 1 , wherein the computer-readable program prompts said processor to carry out the ventricular conditioning stimulation so that pressure in a left and/or a right atrium is lowered at least temporarily, a risk of mitral valve regurgitation is reduced at least temporarily or entirely avoided, a preload of the heart is reduced at least temporarily, a blood pressure of the heart of a patient being stimulated by the implantable system is lowered at least temporarily, and/or a myocardial oxygen balance is improved at least temporarily, by setting an AV delay ascertained and/or biventricular pacing and/or an increased ventricular pacing rate for the patient.

9. The implantable system according to claim 1 , further comprising a second detection unit, said first detection unit and/or said second detection unit being used to detect an effect of the ventricular conditioning stimulation on the atrial antitachycardia pacing.

10. The implantable system according to claim 1 , wherein the computer-readable program prompts said processor to store a success of the atrial antitachycardia pacing and a success of a conducted ventricular conditioning stimulation as a value pair each time a treatment of the heart is applied to thereby obtain a plurality of stored value pairs, and wherein the computer-readable program prompts said processor to select at least one value pair for a subsequent treatment of the heart from ones of the stored value pairs indicating a success of the atrial antitachycardia pacing and the conducted ventricular conditioning stimulation.

11. A method for controlling an operation of an implantable system for stimulating a human heart or an animal heart, which comprises the steps of:
detecting by way of a first detection unit whether atrial tachycardia to be treated is present in the human heart or the animal heart;
generating at least one impulse for a ventricular conditioning stimulation in a ventricular stimulation unit when the atrial tachycardia to be treated is present; and
generating at least one impulse for atrial antitachycardia pacing in an atrial stimulation unit as the at least one impulse is being generated in the ventricular stimulation unit and/or thereafter.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer-readable code, which prompts a processor to carry out the following steps when the computer-readable code is being executed on the processor:
detecting by way of a first detection unit whether atrial tachycardia to be treated is present in a human heart or an animal heart;
carrying out a ventricular conditioning stimulation by way of a ventricular stimulation unit when the atrial tachycardia to be treated is present; and
applying atrial antitachycardia pacing by way of an atrial stimulation unit as the ventricular conditioning stimulation is being carried and/or thereafter.

13. A method for treating a human patient or an animal patient requiring such treatment by way of an implantable system for stimulating a heart of the patient, the implantable system having a processor, a memory unit, an atrial stimulation unit, a ventricular stimulation unit and a first detection unit for detecting atrial tachycardia, the method comprises the following steps of:
detecting by way of the first detection unit whether the atrial tachycardia to be treated is present in the heart of the patient;
carrying out a ventricular conditioning stimulation by way of the ventricular stimulation unit when the atrial tachycardia to be treated is present; and
applying atrial antitachycardia pacing by way of the atrial stimulation unit as the ventricular conditioning stimulation is being carried out and/or thereafter.

Assignees

• Biotronik Se & Co Kg

Inventors

• Doerr Thomas
• Ershov Sergey
• Radtke Torsten
• Roemer Martin
• Weiss Ingo

Classifications

• A61N1/395

  for treating atrial fibrillation · CPC title

• A61N1/3624 Primary

  occurring in the atrium, i.e. atrial tachycardia · CPC title

• A61N5/0613

  Apparatus adapted for a specific treatment · CPC title

• A61N5/0601

  Apparatus for use inside the body · CPC title

• A61N1/3622

  comprising two or more electrodes co-operating with different heart regions · CPC title