METHOD AND APPARATUS USING A TIME MEASUREMENT TO AN ELECTRICAL PARAMETER THRESHOLD TO DETERMINE A DEFIBRILLATION PULSE DURATION

摘要

A defibrillator method and apparatus use a measurement of the time that it takes for an electrical parameter related to the defibrillation pulse discharge to reach an intermediate parameter threshold to determine the duration of the pulse. In one embodiment, the defibrillator measures the elapsed time that it takes for an electrical parameter to reach a predetermined intermediate parameter threshold. The defibrillator determines a period of time for extending the duration of the pulse based on the measured elapsed time. In other embodiments, the intermediate parameter threshold may vary during the pulse discharge and/or multiple intermediate parameter thresholds may be used. The measurement of elapsed time may also be used to determine other conditions for truncating the defibrillation pulse, such as voltage current, energy, charge or time. The defibrillator thus provides a defibrillation pulse whose duration is dynamically determined from a time measurement made during the delivery of the pulse.