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Acute and chronic high-frequency properties of cardiac pacing and defibrillation leads

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Abstract

The purpose of our study was to investigate variety of cardiac lead conductor designs as high-frequency (HF) transmission lines. Special attention was given on evaluation of chronic HF applications in cardiac electrotherapy. We measured the characteristic impedance and the attenuation coefficient of six pacing leads between 1 and 21 MHz. They were subsequently immersed into the saline solution simulating the body fluid and the measurements were repeated 10 years later. Identical measurements were performed on 15 new pacing and defibrillation leads. The results revealed that lead geometry is the main factor affecting the HF parameters. Attenuation coefficients of old and contemporary leads do not differ significantly. Penetration of saline within the leads during a decade did not influence much their HF characteristics. Thus, a chronic cardiac contraction sensor based on lead’s HF impedance variation is feasible. The signal losses of ultrasonic transducers mounted on the lead might be stable for years at acceptable levels without significant variation. Due to mutually similar values of HF parameters in different leads, design of tensiometric or ultrasonic applications could be universal for majority of commercially available leads. Automatic system calibration could be developed for each and every lead after determination of its HF parameters.

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Abbreviations

ICD:

Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator

HF:

High-frequency

MIO:

Metal ion oxidation

DUT:

Device under test

ETFE:

Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene

LV:

Left ventricular

RF:

Radio frequency

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Acknowledgments

This project has been funded through NICE Project Grant of Cardiac Rhythm and Disease Management Division (CRDM), Medtronic Inc. Minneapolis, USA. We are also thankful to the Department of Electronic Systems and Information Processing at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, Croatia, for supporting our first measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CRDM Division, Medtronic Adriatic, Folnegoviceva 1C, 1000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Danko Tomasic & Bozidar Ferek-Petric

  2. Department of Cardiology, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, Kresimirova 42, 51000, Rijeka, Croatia

    Sandro Brusich

  3. Department of Industrial Engineering and Information Technology, University of Trieste, Piazzale Europa 1, 34127, Trieste, Italy

    Agostino P. Accardo

Authors
  1. Danko Tomasic
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  2. Bozidar Ferek-Petric
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  3. Sandro Brusich
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  4. Agostino P. Accardo
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Correspondence to Danko Tomasic.

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Tomasic, D., Ferek-Petric, B., Brusich, S. et al. Acute and chronic high-frequency properties of cardiac pacing and defibrillation leads. Med Biol Eng Comput 50, 827–837 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-012-0935-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-012-0935-3

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