Sensitivity measurement of short pulse width pacemakers

This article deals with pacemaker sensitivity measurements. Sensitivity in this case is defined as the ability of the pacemaker to recognize the patient's own intrinsic rhythm. The Fluke IMPULSE 7000DP was used for sensitivity measurements in our laboratory environment. However, this commercial device is limited by pulse width of the pacemaker - the minimum pulse width which this device can recognize is one millisecond. Therefore a custom measurement system was developed which consists of two interconnected parts. The first part is a software tool (MATLAB / Simulink) and the second one is a data acquisition card AD622 from Humusoft Company.