A dual energy mode system for the development of new techniques in cardiac electrophysiological studies and external pacing

Programmed electrical stimulation is an important clinical procedure in the assessment of bradycardias and ventricular tachycardias. At present, research is been carried out on a minimally invasive approach of this procedure. Therefore, the authors have developed a PC based system which is suitable for the development and clinical validation of new non-invasive techniques in cardiac electrophysiological studies (EPS). The interface subsystem, siting between a laptop PC and the patient under study, performs the required stimulation energy management as commanded by the output of the special software environment at the computer side. The latter, allows easy interactive programming of the stimulation protocols used in standard EPS. Also, the system supports atrial (A) and ventricular (V) sequential pacing, and real-time endocardial and surface ECG processing and screen display. The interface subsystem allows two modes of operation according with the level of energy require in the stimulation protocol: a low energy mode for intracardiac stimulation, and a high energy mode for esothoracic stimulation (external). Adequate electrical isolation between the PC and patient was incorporated. The functionality and reliability of the system was tested following a rigorous laboratory test procedure.