Apparatus and method for detecting progression of AV nodal block and atrial capture using atrial lead

摘要

The pacemaker includes an atrial sensor (20) for sensing atrial activity in a patient's atrium and generating corresponding atrial sense signals. The atrial activity includes an intrinsic atrial beat and a ventricular event. A pacing device generates an atrial pacing pulse. A control device (24) receives and analyses the atrial sense signals and for controls the pacing device (22) responsive to the atrial sense signals. An AV nodal block (38) receives the atrial sense signals for sensing an AV nodal block of the heart. The AV nodal block sensing device generates an AV block indication signal based on an atrial event and the ventricular event. The atrial event is defined by one of the intrinsic atrial beat and the atrial pacing pulse. The patient is normally requested to return to a physician for normal check ups. As part of this procedure, the AV nodal block condition can be retrieved or downloaded from memory (32) into a programmer (34) and displayed to the physician.