Michael G Fine

US Patent:

49229273, May 8, 1990

Filed:

May 8, 1989

Appl. No.:

7/348869

Inventors:

Michael J. Fine - Lake Jackson TX
Richard V. Calfee - Houston TX

Assignee:

Intermedics, Inc. - Angleton TX

International Classification:

A61N 105

US Classification:

128786

Abstract:

A transvenous lead for defibrillation and pacing of the heart includes a single defibrillating coil electrode adapted to be introduced into the right ventricle of the heart. The coil constitutes a relatively long flexible large surface area electrode conformable to the shape of the ventricle and thereby readily disposed along the entire length of the vertricle for use in delivering defibrillating shocks. A pacing electrode at the tip of the lead is used both in stimulating the heart with pacing pulses and in sensing the response of the heart to the pulses and to shocks. The coil electrode is multi-filar, composed of a plurality of wires tightly wound side by side, each wire composed of copper-zirconium alloy wrapped with tantalum, and is flared from the diameter at its ends to a lager diameter intermediate its ends to increase the exposed surface area thereof in the ventricle.