Cardiac Rate Measurement Selective Activation for Power Efficiency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cardiac rhythm management devices face challenges in accurately measuring cardiac rates due to issues like T-wave overdetection, which leads to unnecessary therapy delivery and data overload, highlighting the need for alternative methods to integrate multiple cardiac activity sources and improve power efficiency.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a system that selectively activates a second cardiac rate measurement when needed, using different data sources and analysis methods, such as spectral content or data from other devices, to correct and discard or replace initial measurements, thereby reducing power consumption and improving accuracy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a second cardiac rate measurement is continuously activated, then measurement accuracy is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the activation state of the second cardiac rate measurement based on real-time assessment of the first measurement's quality. When the first measurement shows signs of overdetection or low reliability, the second measurement is activated to provide correction; when the first measurement is reliable, the second measurement remains inactive, thus optimizing power consumption while maintaining accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the output of the first cardiac rate measurement to automatically determine when the second measurement should be activated. The first measurement serves itself by providing the trigger condition for activating the more accurate but power-intensive second measurement, creating a self-regulating system that balances accuracy and power consumption.
2Ease of operation
If cardiac cycle detection is used to track cardiac activity, then ease of operation is improved, but measurement precision deteriorates due to T-wave overdetection
Solution Approach 1:
The second cardiac rate measurement acts as an intermediary that mediates between the simple but inaccurate first measurement and the true cardiac rate. When T-wave overdetection occurs in the first measurement, the second measurement provides an independent assessment that corrects the errors, while the system maintains the simplicity of using the first measurement as the primary indicator.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring the output of the first cardiac rate detection and using it to trigger corrective action from the second measurement when anomalies such as overdetection are detected. This feedback loop allows the simple detection method to operate most of the time while automatically correcting its own errors.
3Reliability
If multiple cardiac rate measurements are always active, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically configures its measurement architecture by activating or deactivating the second cardiac rate measurement based on the reliability needs indicated by the first measurement's performance. This dynamic configuration allows the system to have high reliability when needed while maintaining low complexity during normal operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies different levels of measurement quality locally - using the simpler first measurement method for periods when reliability requirements are met, and switching to the more robust second measurement method locally in time and condition-specific scenarios where overdetection or inaccuracies occur, rather than uniformly applying the complex measurement throughout.
Data Source
AI summary
In some examples, cardiac cycle detection may be used as an approach to cardiac activity tracking, with one or more second approaches to cardiac activity tracking also available for use. Additional rate measurement relying on different sources or analyses may require extra power consumption over the cycle detection methods. Therefore, new methods and devices are disclosed that selectively activate a second cardiac rate measurement. In some illustrative methods and devices, decisions are made as to whether and which previously collected data, if any, is to be discarded, replaced, or corrected upon activation of the second cardiac rate measurement. In some illustrative methods and devices, a cardiac cycle detection approach to cardiac activity tracking may be bypassed by a second cardiac rate measurement.