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A Conceptual Basis for Pacing Waveforms
Author(s) -
CLELAND BRIAN G.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
pacing and clinical electrophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.686
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1540-8159
pISSN - 0147-8389
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8159.1996.tb04187.x
Subject(s) - medicine , cardiac pacing , basis (linear algebra) , waveform , cardiology , telecommunications , computer science , radar , geometry , mathematics
A model is developed that allows evaluation of the pacing efficacy of different stimulus waveforms. It treats the heart as having a first order time constant and enables ready visualization of the time course of the effective voltage within the heart. For pacemakers, where the stimulus pulse is produced by the discharge of a capacitor, the voltage within the heart rapidly rises to a peak and then more slowlv decays to zero. The time interval at which the peak occurs defines the optimal duration, i.e., the shortest duration with minimal pacing voltage. Characteristics are developed that show the changes in optimal duration and pacing threshold for changes in the pacemaker's output capacitor and for differences in lead impedance and time constant of the heart.