Not Applicable
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to implantable medical devices which deliver energy to stimulate tissue in an animal, and more particularly to transvascular stimulation in which the medical device is implanted in a vein or artery to stimulate the adjacent tissue or organ.
2. Description of the Related Art
A remedy for people with slowed or disrupted natural heart activity is to implant a cardiac pacing device which is a small electronic apparatus that stimulates the heart to beat at regular rates.
Typically the pacing device is implanted in the patient's chest and has sensor electrodes that detect electrical impulses associated with in the heart contractions. These sensed impulses are analyzed to determine when abnormal cardiac activity occurs, in which event a pulse generator is triggered to produce electrical pulses. Wires carry these pulses to electrodes placed adjacent specific cardiac muscles, which when electrically stimulated contract the heart chambers. It is important that the stimulation electrodes be properly located to produce contraction of the heart chambers.
Modern cardiac pacing devices vary the stimulation to adapt the heart rate to the patient's level of activity, thereby mimicking the heart's natural activity. The pulse generator modifies that rate by tracking the activity of the sinus node of the heart or by responding to other sensor signals that indicate body motion or respiration rate.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,445,953 describes a cardiac pacemaker that has a pacing device, which can be located outside the patient, to detect abnormal electrical cardiac activity. In that event, the pacing device emits a radio frequency signal, that is received by a circuit mounted on a stimulator body implanted in a vein or artery of the patient's heart. Specifically, the radio frequency signal induces a voltage pulse in an antenna and that pulse is applied across a pair of electrodes on the body, thereby stimulating adjacent muscles and contracting the heart. Although this cardiac pacing apparatus offered several advantages over other types of pacemakers, it required placement of sensing electrodes on the patient's chest in order for the external pacing device to detect when the heart requires stimulation.
An apparatus is provided to electrically stimulate tissue or an organ of an animal. That apparatus includes a power transmitter which periodically transmits a pulse of a radio frequency signal to a intravascular stimulator that is implanted in a vein or artery of the animal.
The intravascular stimulator comprises a pickup device, such as a coil of wire for example, for receiving the radio frequency signal from the power transmitter and optionally an electrical signal produced within the animal, such as a signal emitted from the sinus node or muscle fibers of a heart. A stimulation signal circuit is connected to the pickup device and a pair of electrodes that are in contact with tissue of the animal and has an electrical storage device that is charged by electrical energy from the radio frequency signal. Upon being triggered, the stimulation signal circuit applies a voltage pulse across the pair of electrodes thereby stimulating the tissue of the animal adjacent the electrodes.
In a preferred embodiment of the intravascular stimulator, the stimulation signal circuit includes a discriminator and a pulse circuit. The discriminator is connected to the pickup device and controls charging of the electrical storage device in response to detecting a pulse of the radio frequency signal. When the discriminator detects the electrical signal, a trigger signal is produced, which causes the pulse circuit to apply the stimulation voltage pulse across the pair of electrodes.
Although the present invention is being described in the context of cardiac pacing and of implanting a stimulator in a vein or artery of the heart, the present apparatus can be employed to stimulate of the areas of the human body. In addition to cardiac applications, the stimulation apparatus can provide brain stimulation, for treatment of Parkinson's disease or obsessive/compulsive disorder for example. The transvascular electrical stimulation also may be applied to muscles, the spine, the gastro/intestinal tract, the pancreas, and the sacral nerve. The apparatus may also be used for GERD treatment, endotracheal stimulation, pelvic floor stimulation, treatment of obstructive airway disorder and apnea, molecular therapy delivery stimulation, chronic constipation treatment, and electrical stimulation for bone healing.
With initial reference to
Referring to
As illustrated in
With reference to
Whenever an RF signal pulse is detected, the pulse discriminator 38 uses the energy of that signal to charge a storage capacitor 40 which supplies electrical power to the circuitry on the intravascular stimulator 20. Other types of electrical storage devices may be employed. The radio frequency signal supplies power to the intravascular stimulator, and unlike prior wireless pacemakers does not trigger cardiac stimulation.
The sinus node of the heart 12 emits an electrical cardiac signal which causes contraction of the heart chambers. The cardiac signal travels from cell to cell in paths through the heart to muscles which contract the atria. This signal also propagates along another path until reaching the atrioventricular (AV) node, which is a cluster of cells situated in the center of the heart between the atria and ventricles. The atrioventricular node serves as a gate that slows the electrical current before the cardiac signal is permitted to pass to the ventricles. This delay ensures that the atria have a chance to fully contract before the ventricles are stimulated. the resultant contraction of the cardiac muscle fibers also produces a cardiac signal.
Due to the placement of the intravascular stimulator 20 in proximity to the atrium or ventricle muscles, emission of the cardiac signal from that muscle fiber also induces an electric current pulse in the pickup device, or coil, 34 of the intravascular stimulator 20, as depicted in
As shown in
Depending upon whether the second electrode 44 is placed to stimulate contraction of an atrium or a ventricle, the pulse circuit 42 delays a predefined amount of time after receiving the trigger signal from the pulse discriminator 38 before applying the voltage pulse to the first and second electrodes. Therefore, timing of muscle stimulation corresponds to that which occurs with respect to naturally induced contraction of the atrium or ventricle. The duration of that delay is programmed into the pulse circuit 42.
In another version of the intravascular stimulator 20, one or more additional electrodes, such as a third electrode 50, can be implanted in other cardiac blood vessels 52 to stimulate further sections of the heart. In this case, individual voltage pulses can be applied between the first electrode 36 and each of the additional electrodes 44 and 50 to separately stimulate contraction of those other sections of the heart. A stimulation pulse also may be applied between the second and third electrodes 44 and 50, without using the first electrode 36.
The foregoing description was primarily directed to preferred embodiments of the invention. Even though some attention was given to various alternatives within the scope of the invention, it is anticipated that one skilled in the art will likely realize additional alternatives that are now apparent from disclosure of embodiments of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be determined from the following claims and not limited by the above disclosure.
This application is a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/700,148 filed on Nov. 3, 2003.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 10700148 | Nov 2003 | US |
Child | 11199030 | Aug 2005 | US |