Methods and devices that identify overdetection in implantable cardiac systems

1. An implantable cardiac device comprising a plurality of electrodes configured for implantation into a patient for at least sensing cardiac signals and operational circuitry electrically coupled to the electrodes, wherein the operational circuitry is configured to perform a method comprising:

sensing a signal with the electrodes;

detecting events from the sensed signal, the detected events being separated by intervals;

capturing a series of detected events;

characterizing the series of detected events as wide or narrow;

identifying a qualifying narrow-wide-narrow sequence of detected events; and

determining that the wide event of the qualifying narrow-wide-narrow sequence is an overdetected event;

wherein the operational circuitry is configured to calculate a cardiac rate for the patient using intervals between detected events which are not determined to be overdetections.

2. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 1 , wherein the operational circuitry is configured such that characterizing the series of detected events as wide or narrow includes estimating the width of each of the series of detected events, comparing the estimated width to a width threshold and:

characterizing events having a width that is less than the width threshold as narrow;

characterizing events having a width that is greater than the width threshold plus a predefined buffer value as wide; and

characterizing events having a width greater than the width threshold and less than the width threshold plus the predefined buffer value as Wide if the immediately preceding event was Wide and, otherwise, characterizing the event as Narrow.

3. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 2 , wherein the operational circuitry is configured such that the step of identifying a qualifying narrow-wide-narrow sequence of detected events requires both the narrow events in the sequence to have a width that is less than the width threshold.

4. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 1 , wherein the operational circuitry is further configured to perform the following steps:

if an overdetected event occurs, correcting data relating to the overdetected event; and

using the corrected data to analyze the patient's cardiac rhythm;

wherein the operational circuitry is configured such that the step of using the corrected data to analyze the patient's cardiac rhythm includes characterizing the patient's cardiac rhythm as either treatable or not treatable and, if the patient's cardiac rhythm is characterized as treatable, then the device is further configured to deliver therapy using at least a pair of the plurality of electrodes.

5. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 1 , wherein the operational circuitry is further configured to perform the following steps:

if an overdetected event occurs, correcting captured data relating to the overdetected event; and

using the corrected captured data to analyze the patient's cardiac rhythm;

wherein the operational circuitry is configured such that the step of using the corrected data to analyze the patient's cardiac rhythm includes characterizing the patient's cardiac rhythm as either treatable or not treatable and, if the patient's cardiac rhythm is characterized as treatable, then the operational circuitry is configured to deliver therapy to the patient using at least a pair of the plurality of electrodes.

6. An implantable cardiac device comprising a plurality of electrodes configured for implantation into a patient for at least sensing cardiac signals and operational circuitry electrically coupled to the electrodes, wherein the operational circuitry is configured to perform a method comprising:

sensing a signal with the electrodes;

detecting events from the sensed signal, the detected events being separated by intervals;

analyzing the detected events to develop a set of several characteristics of the detected events;

for each of the set of several characteristics, categorizing the detected events;

observing alternating categorizations of the detected events within the several characteristics; and

combining categorizations from two separate characteristics to identify overdetections within the detected events using at least two characteristics that each show alternating categories in a predetermined manner;

wherein the operational circuitry is configured to calculate a cardiac rate for the patient using intervals between detected events which are not determined to be overdetections.

7. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 6 , wherein:

the characteristics include at least width and correlation;

the categorizations include:

for width, wide and narrow; and

for correlation, high and low; and

the combining step includes finding a sequence of narrow-wide-narrow widths for a first series of three detected events, and finding a sequence of high-low-high correlations for a second series of three detected events, the first series including at least one detected event that is not in the second series.

8. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 7 wherein the correlation is calculated as correlation to a stored static template.

9. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 7 wherein the correlation is a dynamic correlation.

10. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 6 , wherein:

the characteristics include at least width and detection intervals;

the categorizations include:

for width, wide and narrow; and

for detection intervals, long and short; and

the combining step includes finding a sequence of narrow-wide-narrow widths for a first series of three detected events, and finding a sequence of long-short-long detection intervals for a second series of three detected events, the first series including at least one detected event that is not in the second series.

11. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 6 , wherein:

the characteristics include at least correlation and detection intervals;

the categorizations include:

for detection intervals, long and short; and

for correlation, high and low; and

the combining step includes finding a sequence of long-short-long detection intervals for a first series of three detected events, and finding a sequence of high-low-high correlations for a second series of three detected events, the first series including at least one detected event that is not in the second series.

12. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 11 wherein the correlation is calculated as correlation to a stored static template.

13. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 11 wherein the correlation is a dynamic correlation.

14. An implantable cardiac device comprising a plurality of electrodes configured for implantation into a patient and operational circuitry electrically coupled to the electrodes, wherein the operational circuitry is configured to perform a method comprising:

a) sensing a signal with the electrodes;

b) detecting events from the sensed signal, the detected events being separated by intervals;

c) analyzing the detected events to develop a set of several characteristics of the detected events;

d) using a first characteristic of the set of several characteristics, identifying an alternating pattern indicating that a particular one of the set of detected events likely resulted from overdetection;

e) reviewing a second characteristic of the set of several characteristics and determining that the particular one of the set of detected events is not an overdetection notwithstanding step d); and

f) using selected ones of the set of detected events, including the particular one of the set of detected events analyzed in steps d) and e), to estimate a cardiac rate.

15. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 14 , wherein the first of the set of several characteristics is correlation relative to a template, and the second of the set of several characteristics is detected event width.

16. An implantable device as in claim 15 , wherein the correlation is a static correlation.

17. An implantable device as in claim 15 , wherein the correlation is a dynamic correlation.

18. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 14 , wherein the first of the set of several characteristics is interval duration, and the second of the set of several characteristics is detected event width.

19. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 14 , wherein the first of the set of several characteristics is interval duration, and the second of the set of several characteristics is dynamic correlation relative to a template.

20. An implantable cardiac device as in claim 14 , wherein the first of the set of several characteristics is interval duration, and the second of the set of several characteristics is static correlation relative to a template.