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Abstract

There is disclosed an event counting and reporting heart pacer which is useful for patients who suffer from bradycardia. The pacer operates in a demand mode with a 2.5-second escape interval. A count is maintained of the number of pauses each of which exceeds this escape interval. Four successive pauses, each of which exceeds 2.0 seconds but is less than 2.5 seconds, are treated as a single 2.5-second pause. Following the detection of each pause, the escape interval is reduced to 1.2 seconds and the counter is inhibited from further operation; the counter is enabled and the 2.5-second escape interval applies once again only after a spontaneous heartbeat is detected within 1.2 seconds of the preceding beat. When a maximum count of 128 pauses is reached, the system thereafter operates with fixed 1.2-second escape interval. Upon application of an external magnet, the pacer generates a continuous series of pulses at a high rate whose number is proportional to the current count; a physician, by observing an EKG trace, can thus determine the number of pauses which were counted. Interrogation of the pacer in this way also resets the counter so that another counting cycle can begin.

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First Claim