University of Michigan

Stephanie A Caswell

Lorenzo A DiCarlo

Janice M Jenkins

A method and appartus for differentiating between ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation includes a pair of electrodes located on a single catheter which, in conjunction with an implantable cardioverter device, utilize two channel ventricular algorithms for ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation separation. Two closely spaced unipolar electrograms demonstrate similar morphology and consistency during rhythms with broad coherent activation (such as sinus rhythm and ventricular tachycardia). Conversely, for incoherent rhythms (ventricular fibrillation and polymorphic ventricular tachycardia), activation between the electrodes proved to be dissimilar and inconsistent. The cross-correlation of the two depolarizations measures similarity between electrogram morphology, and interquartile range measures consistency in a passage. The method and apparatus of the present invention is able to address the limitation of existing algorithms and provide accurate separation of ventricular fibrillation from other rhythms.

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Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America

Stephanie A Caswell