Method, implantable medical device, and system for determining the condition of a heart valve

摘要

An implantable medical device has an impedance processor that determines impedance data reflective of the transvalvular impedance of a heart valve of a heart during a heart cycle. The determined impedance data are processed by a representation processor that estimates diastolic and systolic transvalvular impedance representations. A condition processor determines the presence of any heart valve malfunction, such as valve regurgitation andor stenosis, of the heart valve based on the estimated diastolic and systolic transvalvular impedance representations.

主权项

1. An implantable medical device comprising:
an electrode connecting arrangement connectable to multiple electrodes of which at least one is being arranged on a cardiac lead connectable to said electrode connecting arrangement; a signal generator that generates an electric signal applicable over a portion of a heart by a pair of electrodes among said multiple electrodes; an impedance processor that determines, based on said electric signal and a resulting electric signal measured over a portion of the heart by a pair of electrodes of said multiple electrodes, impedance data reflective of a transvalvular impedance of a valve of the heart during at least one heart cycle; a representation processor that estimates a diastolic transvalvular impedance representation and a systolic transvalvular impedance representation based on said impedance data; and a condition processor that determines a condition of the valve based on said diastolic transvalvular impedance representation and said systolic transvalvular impedance representation; wherein said representation processor estimates a diastolic average transvalvular impedance value and a systolic average transvalvular impedance value based on said impedance data.