The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 07, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 17, 1999
Robert E. Fischell, Dayton, MD (US);
David R. Fischell, Fair Haven, NJ (US);
Tim A. Fischell, Richland, MI (US);
Cathco, Inc., Dayton, MD (US);
Abstract
Disclosed is a system for detecting a myocardial infarction (i.e., a heart attack) at the earliest possible time and promptly warning the patient that he should immediately seek medical care. Specifically, a first embodiment of the present invention has an implantable electronic system that can sense a change in the patient's electrogram that is indicative of a myocardial infarction. If a myocardial infarction is sensed, the device would then cause an implantable or externally located alarm means such as an audio sound to be actuated to warn the patient of his condition. The patient could then promptly seek medical care, for example, at a hospital emergency room. Having been trained to recognize such an alarm, most patient would neither fail to recognize such an indication of a myocardial infarction nor would they ignore such an alarm signal if it were to occur. Since an implantable heart pacemaker or defibrillator already has within its structure many of the elements required for the device to recognize a myocardial infarction, it would be expeditious to add a capability to these existing devices to detect a myocardial infarction and provide an implantable or external alarm means to inform the patient to take appropriate action.