ATRIAL AND VENTRICULAR PACER HAVING INDEPENDENT RATE CONTROLS AND MEANS TO MAINTAIN A CONSTANT AV DELAY

摘要

There is disclosed an atrial and ventricular pacer having independent rate and AV delay controls. An adjustable timing circuit is provided to control the rate of the ventricular stimulating pulses. The occurrence of each ventricular beat triggers an atrial pulse generating circuit, an atrial stimulating pulse being generated following a variable time interval. The ventricular rate control circuit includes one potentiometer, and the atrial pulse generating circuit includes two potentiometers connected in series, one of which is ganged to the ventricular rate potentiometer. If the impedance of the ventricular rate potentiometer is increased to increase the ventricular escape interval, then as a result of the ganging of the two potentiometers the atrial pulse delay is similarly increased; thus the AV delay remains constant even as the pacer rate is varied. The second potentiometer in the atrial pulsing circuit is used to vary the AV delay.