Patent Application
20120010678
This invention pertains to implantable medical devices and to methods for treating syncopal episodes.
Syncope, or fainting, is a transient loss of consciousness and postural tone that may be due a number of etiologies, both cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular. The most common pathophysiogical basis of syncope is an acute decrease in cerebral blood flow secondary to a decrease in cardiac output, thereby causing cerebral hypoxia. Such a decrease in cardiac output can be due to, for example, cardiac arrhythmias or cardiac outflow obstructions. Neurocardiogenic syncope is a relatively benign condition in which dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system causes an inappropriate slowing of the heart (bradycardia) to result in hypotension. Classic neurogenic syncope (vasovagal syncope) occurs when inappropriate reflex inhibition of the sympathetic nervous system and increased parasympathetic activity causes both bradycardia and peripheral vasodilation. Vasovagal syncope may occur in otherwise healthy individuals and in patients with a variety of underlying diseases. A number of factors may precipitate vasovagal syncope, including a hot or crowded environment, alcohol, extreme fatigue, hunger, chronic recumbency, prolonged standing, and emotional or stressful situations. Another type of neurocardiogenic syncope involves failure of the baroreceptor reflex to transiently increase the heart rate when an individual rises to an upright position, causing venous pooling in the lower extremities and decreased venous return to the right side of the heart.
Even if the cause of the syncope is benign, however, its consequences may not be. Falls during syncope can result in fractures, and episodes that occur while driving can be extremely dangerous. Chronic and recurring syncope can create a level of functional impairment similar to that produced by other chronic debilitating disorders.
The present invention is a system and method for preventing and/or treating syncope with cardiac electrostimulation delivered by an implantable medical device that increases cardiac output. The heart rate is monitored and, when bradycardia below a specified limit value is detected that indicates the onset of a syncopal episode, electrostimulation pulses are delivered to a ventricle during its refractory period. Such electrostimulation pulses are non-excitatory but serve to increase the contractility of the ventricle. Stroke volume and cardiac output are thereby increased in order to prevent or lessen the severity of the syncopal episode.
The present invention for treating neurocardiogenic syncope may be incorporated into various types of cardiac rhythm management devices having means for sensing and electrostimulating the heart. As will be described below, the invention may most conveniently be incorporated into a pacemaker.
1. System Description
Cardiac rhythm management devices are implantable devices that provide electrical stimulation to selected chambers of the heart in order to treat disorders of cardiac rhythm and include pacemakers and implantable cardioverter/defibrillators. A pacemaker is a cardiac rhythm management device that paces the heart with timed pacing pulses. The most common condition for which pacemakers are used is in the treatment of bradycardia, where the ventricular rate is too slow. Atrio-ventricular conduction defects (i.e., AV block) that are permanent or intermittent and sick sinus syndrome represent the most common causes of bradycardia for which permanent pacing may be indicated. If functioning properly, the pacemaker makes up for the heart's inability to pace itself at an appropriate rhythm in order to meet metabolic demand by enforcing a minimum heart rate. Pacing therapy may also be applied in order to treat cardiac rhythms that are too fast, termed anti-tachycardia pacing. (As the term is used herein, a pacemaker is any cardiac rhythm management device with a pacing functionality, regardless of any other functions it may perform such as the delivery cardioversion or defibrillation shocks to terminate atrial or ventricular fibrillation.)
Pacemakers are typically implanted subcutaneously on a patient's chest and have leads threaded intravenously into the heart to connect the device to electrodes used for sensing and pacing. A programmable electronic controller causes the pacing pulses to be output in response to lapsed time intervals and sensed electrical activity (i.e., intrinsic heart beats not as a result of a pacing pulse). Pacemakers sense intrinsic cardiac electrical activity by means of internal electrodes disposed near the chamber to be sensed. A depolarization wave associated with an intrinsic contraction of the atria or ventricles that is detected by the pacemaker is referred to as an atrial sense or ventricular sense, respectively. In order to cause such a contraction in the absence of an intrinsic beat, a pacing pulse (either an atrial pace or a ventricular pace) with energy above a certain pacing threshold is delivered to the chamber.
Bradycardia pacing modes refer to pacing algorithms used to pace the atria and/or ventricles when the intrinsic ventricular rate is inadequate either due to AV conduction blocks or sinus node dysfunction. Such modes may either be single-chamber pacing, where either an atrium or a ventricle is paced, or dual-chamber pacing in which both an atrium and a ventricle are paced. Pacemakers can enforce a minimum heart rate either asynchronously or synchronously. In asynchronous pacing, the heart is paced at a fixed rate irrespective of intrinsic cardiac activity. There is thus a risk with asynchronous pacing that a pacing pulse will be delivered coincident with an intrinsic beat and during the heart's vulnerable period which may cause fibrillation. Most pacemakers for treating bradycardia today are therefore programmed to operate synchronously in a so-called demand mode where sensed cardiac events occurring within a defined interval either trigger or inhibit a pacing pulse. Inhibited demand pacing modes utilize escape intervals to control pacing in accordance with sensed intrinsic activity. In an inhibited demand mode, a pacing pulse is delivered to a heart chamber during a cardiac cycle only after expiration of a defined escape interval during which no intrinsic beat by the chamber is detected. If an intrinsic beat occurs during this interval, the heart is thus allowed to “escape” from pacing by the pacemaker. Such an escape interval can be defined for each paced chamber. For example, a ventricular escape interval can be defined between ventricular events so as to be restarted with each ventricular sense or pace. The inverse of this escape interval is the minimum rate at which the pacemaker will allow the ventricles to beat, sometimes referred to as the lower rate limit (LRL).
2. Cardiac Contractility Modulation
In accordance with the invention, when bradycardia below a specified threshold that could otherwise cause syncope is detected by the device, one or more electrostimulatory pulses are delivered to the heart during the refractory period of one or more heartbeats. Such stimulation, referred to herein as cardiac contractility modulation (CCM), is non-excitatory because it is delivered during the refractory period of the ventricle. (The refractory period of the ventricle in this case refers to that portion of the ventricle to which is delivered the electrostimulatory pulse being refractory.) It has been found that such stimulation causes an increase in myocardial contractility, presumably by increasing intracellular calcium concentration. The increase in contractility increases stroke volume so that more blood is pumped in a subsequent systolic contraction. The increased stroke volume counteracts the bradycardia and thereby stabilizes cardiac output to either prevent or shorten the duration of a syncopal episode. The invention may be a dedicated implantable device or incorporated into an implantable cardiac rhythm management device such as a pacemaker, implantable cardioverter/defibrillator, or combination device.
Sensing of cardiac activity and delivery of CCM stimulatory pulses may be accomplished using sensing/pacing channels otherwise used for pacing the ventricles with a bradycardia pacing mode or using channels dedicated for the purpose of delivering CCM pulses. In the device shown in
Modifications may be made to the method so that one or more additional criteria are employed to confirm that a syncopal episode is taking place before CCM stimulatory pulses are delivered. One such modification is shown at step Si where the measured intervals between ventricular senses are moving average filtered in order to derive the ventricular rate VR. The moving average filter smooths the ventricular rate so that bradycardia is not detected when long intervals occur solely due to the variability of the instantaneous rate. Another optional modification is to measure the blood pressure as shown at step S2 and deliver CCM stimulatory pulses only if it is below a specified limit value. The blood pressure measurement may be used instead of a sensed heart rate decrease or may be used to confirm the rate decrease before initiating therapy. One way of measuring blood pressure in a cardiac rhythm management device is to use an accelerometer, such as the exertion level sensor 330, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,324, issued to Carlson and hereby incorporated by reference. In a further refinement, the magnitude and/or duration of the CCM pulses can be increased as the measured blood pressure decreases in order to maximize the effectiveness of the therapy.
Cardiac contractility modulation may also be applied to multiple sites in order to distribute the effects of the stimulation pulses. Because this type of non-excitatory stimulation also increases local oxygen consumption, distributing the stimulation over a plurality of sites serves to help prevent potentially deleterious effects at the stimulation sites. Accordingly, at step S5 the ventricular stimulation channels can be alternated with each stimulatory pulse so that the pulses are alternately delivered to electrodes 24a-c.
Although the invention has been described in conjunction with the foregoing specific embodiment, many alternatives, variations, and modifications will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. Such alternatives, variations, and modifications are intended to fall within the scope of the following appended claims.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/862,831 filed on Jun. 7, 2004, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/917,259 filed on Jul. 27, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,748,271. The contents of all of the above applications are incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 10862831 | Jun 2004 | US |
| Child | 13235599 | US | |
| Parent | 09917259 | Jul 2001 | US |
| Child | 10862831 | US |
