US Patent 7761162 Capture verification with intrinsic response discrimination

Approaches to automatically classifying a cardiac response to pacing involve discriminating between a captured response and non-capture with intrinsic activation. A capture detection system senses for morphological characteristics of a cardiac signal associated with the pacing pulse. The cardiac signal may be sensed using a defibrillation electrode during one or more time intervals following delivery of the pacing pulse. If a first characteristic of the cardiac signal achieves a threshold value, the system continues to sense the cardiac signal and detects a second characteristic. The cardiac pacing response is determined based on at least one of the first and the second cardiac signal characteristics.