Activation Times for “Emergency Backup” Programs

A bench study was performed on 42 different pulse generators (PGs) to evaluate the time required to actuate an “emergency backup” (EBU) program. PGs were programmed to loss of capture before the EBU programming key was activated. Activation times for the EBU pause were measured on an ECG strip from the first noncaptured beat to the first recaptured beat while the total pause was measured between the two captured beats. Each test was performed five times. Special features for temporary threshold testing were also evaluated. Mean activation times for EBU pauses ranged from 1.46–11.90 seconds with total pauses of 2.18–12.94 seconds. Significant differences were observed for EBU activation times from the same PG but utilizing older and newer generation programmers, e.g., 10.90 (old) versus 4.54 seconds (new) for a mean EBU pause. Extreme variations existed in EBU activation times for programmers with multiple “EBU keys” for the same PG, e.g., 12.94 versus 4.96 seconds for the mean total pause. The special features for temporary threshold testing resulted in mean EBU pauses measuring 0.62–2.88 seconds and mean total pauses of 1.21–3.76 seconds. The special features were significantly faster than manual activation of the “EBU key” for regaining capture with few exceptions. Activation times were complicated by multiple programmers for the same PG and several “EBU keys” on the same programmer.