Implantable cardioverter/defibrillator employing shock delivery timing for preventing induced fibrillation

摘要

An implantable cardioverter/defibrillator applies a quantity of electrical energy to a heart to terminate an arrhythmia of the heart. The cardioverter/defibrillator employs therapy delivery timing to avoid delivery of the therapy during vulnerable periods of the heart. The cardioverter/defibrillator includes an arrhythmia detector that detects an arrhythmia of the heart, a ventricular activation detector that detects ventricular activations of the heart, and an atrial activation detector that detects atrial activations of the heart. A ventricular timer, resettable by detected ventricular activations, and an atrial timer, resettable by detected atrial activations, keep time responsive to the arrhythmia detector detecting the arrhythmia. A generator applies the quantity of electrical energy to the heart responsive to the arrhythmia detector detecting the arrhythmia, when neither chamber is in its vulnerable period.