Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is among the most common causes of death in developed countries throughout the world. It is estimated that more than 3 million people die yearly from SCD, with a survival rate of less than 1%. In the United States, the Center for Disease Control recently estimated an annual incidence of 450 000 sudden deaths,1 with a survival rate of approximately 5%, although this pr...

From Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University, Durham, N.C. (G.D.S.); the Department of Health Research and Policy, School of Medicine (M.A.H.), and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, Department of Medicine (M.A.H., D.K.O.), Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.; and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, Calif. (D.K.O.). Address reprint requests ...

ECG simulators, available on the market, imitate the electric activity of the heart in a simplified manner. Thus, they are suitable for education purposes but not really for testing algorithms to recognize complex arrhythmias needed for pacemakers and implantable defibrillators. Especially certain discrimination between various morphologies of atrial and ventricular fibrillation needs simulator...

the aim of this study is to evaluate how far lempel-ziv complexity (lzc) of the binary symbolic sequences resulting from static or dynamic transformation (partitioning first-order difference) of the short-term electrocardiogram (ecg) signals (only 2 seconds duration) has the  potential in discriminating normal and ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation (vt/vf) subjects. the statistica...

BACKGROUND Eight randomized trials have evaluated whether the prophylactic use of an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) improves survival among patients who are at risk for sudden death due to left ventricular systolic dysfunction but who have not had a life-threatening ventricular arrhythmia. We assessed the cost-effectiveness of the ICD in the populations represented in these primar...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW The purpose of this review is to provide an update on stored diagnostic information furnished by new model pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs). This information provides crucial information about both device function and arrhythmias discovered with device interrogation and is invaluable when troubleshooting problems with devices. RECENT FINDINGS The...

In this paper, we propose a novel security framework to protect Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICDs) using Smartphones. ICDs are small battery powered Implantable Medical Devices (IMDs) that are introduced in the patient’s body to treat irregular heartbeats known as arrhythmias. These devices are programmed and accessed wirelessly for diagnosis and therapy by a programming device know...

BACKGROUND We reviewed the literature pertaining to the cost-effectiveness of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy in the management of ventricular fibrillation and tachycardia. Discussed are the methodology, advantages, and limitations of economic-outcomes analyses as related to ICD therapy; the impact of new technology and physician practice patterns; and methodological recomm...

AANA Journal February 2009 Vol. 77, No. 1 29 There is little data currently available for the obstetric anesthetist to use as a reference for the anesthetic management of laboring women with automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (AICDs). This case report involves a parturient with an AICD and a history of serious cardiac events.The information contained in this case report may be us...