ATRIAL CARDIOVERTER WITH WINDOW BASED ATRIAL TACHYARRHYTHMIA DETECTION SYSTEM AND METHOD

摘要

There is disclosed an implantable atrial cardioverter for delivering therapy to atria of a human heart if an atrial tachyarrhythmia is present. The cardioverter includes a first sense channel for sensing atrial heart activity within the right atrium of the heart for providing an atrial electrogram having a plurality of cardiac cycles and a second sense channel for sensing ventricular activity of the heart to provide a ventricular electrogram. The cardioverter further includes an atrial tachyarrhythmia detector including a detection window stage responsive to at least the ventricular electrogram to identify for each cardiac cycle of the atrial electrogram, a detection window period free of any heart activity other than spontaneous atrial heart activity, an A wave detector for identifying A waves occurring during each detection window period means for determining atrial cycle lengths between the identified A waves, and a decision stage responsive to the determined atrial cycle lengths for determining if an atrial tachyarrhythmia is present. A cardioverting stage delivers therapy to the atria if an atrial tachyarrhythmia is present.