System and method for detection of pacing pulses within ECG signals

DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a system and method for detecting pacing pulses within ECG data.
Pacing pulses have significant high-frequency energy due to the sharp transitions at the rising and falling edges of the pulse.
A pacing pulse also has a significant amount of low-frequency energy that occurs in a particular time relation to the occurrence of the high-frequency energy.
In accordance with the invention, an ECG signal is processed to determine its energy content in both high and low frequency bands.
If such energy is present above a threshold amount in each band, and meets specified timing criteria, a pacing pulse is detected.
A system for detecting pacing pulses within an ECG input signal in accordance with the invention includes high-frequency and low-frequency bandpass filters for filtering the input signal into high-frequency and low-frequency components that represent the energy of the input signal within the respective frequency bands.
Exemplary high and low-frequency bandpass filters would have center frequencies of approximately 1 KHz and 30 KHz.
The system also includes pulse detection circuitry for detecting high-frequency and low-frequency energy pulses within the high and low-frequency components, respectively, and at least one timer for measuring one or more time intervals between detections of energy pulses.
Logic circuitry is provided for detecting a pacing pulse within the input signal if the detections of the high and low-frequency energy pulses meet specified timing criteria.
The timing criteria may then dictate that a pacing pulse is detected only if detection of a low-frequency energy pulse occurs within a specified time interval with respect to detection of a high-frequency energy pulse.
In one embodiment, the logic circuitry detects possible rising and falling edges of a pacing pulse when first and second high-frequency energy pulses are detected by the pulse detection circuitry.
The timing criteria for detection of a pacing pulse may then include detection of the second high-frequency energy pulse within a specified minimum time interval from the detection of the first high-frequency energy pulse