A method of selecting a patient for cardiac contractility modulation therapy, comprising: selecting a patient meeting a criteria for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT); detecting a potential difficulty in effective delivery of CRT to the patient; and determining that the patient can benefit from cardiac contractility modulation therapy in spite of said potential difficulty.

Implantable medical systems enter an exposure mode of operation, either manually via a down linked programming instruction or by automatic detection by the implantable system of exposure to a magnetic disturbance. A controller then determines the appropriate exposure mode by considering various pieces of information including the device type including whether the device has defibrillation capability, pre-exposure mode of therapy including which chambers have been paced, and pre-exposure cardiac activity that is either intrinsic or paced rates. Additional considerations may include determining whether a sensed rate during the exposure mode is physiologic or artificially produced by the magnetic disturbance. When the sensed rate is physiologic, then the controller uses the sensed rate to trigger pacing and otherwise uses asynchronous pacing at a fixed rate.

The present disclosure relates generally to pacing of cardiac tissue, and more particularly to adjusting delivery of His bundle or bundle branch pacing in a cardiac pacing system to achieve synchronized ventricular activation. A leadless pacing device (LPD) may include a plurality of electrodes comprising a bundle pacing electrode leadlessly connected to the housing, which may be implanted proximate to or in the His bundle or bundle branch of the patient's heart. An electrical pulse generator may generate and deliver electrical His-bundle or bundle-branch stimulation pulses using the bundle pacing electrode based on sensing one or both of an atrial event and a ventricular event. The LPD may receive communication from another implantable device, such as a subcutaneously implanted device, and deliver His-bundle or bundle-branch pacing in response to the communication.

Systems and methods for monitoring and treating patients with heart failure (HF) are discussed. The system may sense cardiac signals, and receives information about patient physiological or functional conditions. A stimulation parameter table that includes recommended values of atrioventricular delay (AVD) or other timing parameters maybe created at a multitude of patient physiological or functional conditions. The system may periodically reassess patient physiological or functional conditions. A therapy programmer circuit may dynamically switch between left ventricular-only pacing and biventricular pacing, or switch between single site pacing and multisite pacing based on the patient condition. The therapy programmer circuit may adjust AVD and other timing parameters using the cardiac signal input and the stored stimulation parameter table. A HF therapy may be delivered according to the determined stimulation site, stimulation mode, and the stimulation timing.

An intracardiac ventricular pacemaker having a motion sensor, a pulse generator and a control circuit coupled to the pulse generator and the motion sensor is configured to identify a ventricular systolic event, detect a ventricular passive filling event signal from the motion signal, and determine a time interval from the ventricular systolic event to the ventricular passive filling event. The pacemaker establishes a minimum pacing interval based on the time interval.

An intracardiac pacemaker system is configured to produce physiological atrial event signals by a sensing circuit of a ventricular intracardiac pacemaker and select a first atrial event input as the physiological atrial event signals. The ventricular intracardiac pacemaker detects atrial events from the selected first atrial event input, determines if input switching criteria are met, and switches from the first atrial event input to a second atrial event input in response to the input switching criteria being met. The second atrial event input includes broadcast atrial event signals produced by a second implantable medical device and received by the ventricular intracardiac pacemaker.

Methods and systems for positioning a leadless pacing device (LPD) in cardiac tissue are disclosed. A delivery device is employed that comprises a proximal end, a distal end and a lumen therebetween sized to receive the LPD. The LPD has a leadlet extending therefrom that includes a means to fixate the leadlet to tissue. The delivery device comprises an introducer to introduce the LPD into the lumen of the delivery device. The LPD is loaded in the distal end of the lumen of the delivery device. The leadlet extends proximally from the LPD while the fixation means extends distally toward the LPD. A LPD mover is configured to advance the LPD out of the delivery device. A leadlet mover is configured to advance the leadlet out of the lumen delivery device and cause the leadlet to engage with cardiac tissue.

Catheter systems, tools and methods are disclosed for the selective and rapid application of DC voltage to drive irreversible electroporation, with the system controller configurable to apply voltages to an independently selected subsets of electrodes, such that voltages of one polarity are applied to a multiplicity of electrodes on a first medical device and voltages of the opposite polarity to a multiplicity of electrodes on a second medical device. The first and second medical devices can be epicardial catheters positioned such that their opposing distal tips are approximately aligned and whose segments with electrodes collectively wrap around the pulmonary veins.

The invention provides methods related to improving heart function.

An implantable medical device includes a plurality of electrodes to detect electrical activity, a motion detector to detect mechanical activity, and a controller to determine at least one electromechanical interval based on at least one of electrical activity and mechanical activity. The activity detected may be in response to delivering a pacing pulse according to an atrioventricular (AV) pacing interval using the second electrode. The electromechanical interval may be used to adjust the AV pacing interval. The electromechanical interval may be used to determine whether cardiac therapy is acceptable or whether atrial or ventricular remodeling is successful.