Patent 7139610 was granted and assigned to Medtronic on November, 2006 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Methods and apparatus for capture management in multi-chamber pacing are disclosed. In one embodiment, the invention includes determining a combination of electrodes from a plurality of electrodes that yields the lowest polarization potential immediately following delivery of an electrical stimulus to a heart; and performing capture detection using that combination of electrodes. In order to distinguish loss of capture in one ventricle in bi-ventricular pacing, certain embodiments may also include measuring a width of a QRS complex and determining when the width is greater than a predetermined value. A method for detecting single ventricular loss of capture in bi-ventricular pacing is also described utilizing comparison of evoked QRS complex morphology to a predefined waveform.