Vitatron EE244

This Vitatron Interface motherboard/card is used in the medical industry to control and monitor pacemakers and other medical equipment. Pulse Generator: hardware module in Vitatron's DA+ pacemaker that forms the interface between the pacemaker leads and the pacemaker firmware

4 LEDs provide the following digital read outs: PACE, PHYS. SENSE, PATH. SENSE, and T-WAVE. The other connection controls IPG/Load Input from other sources.

This important hardware module from firmware perspective is the pulse generator (PG). The PG can be seen as the interface between the pacemaker leads and the firmware; it delivers paces to the heart on request of the firmware and provides heart diagnostics back to the firmware. These diagnostics include notifications when a contraction is sensed and when a pace is given (called sense and pace events) and time intervals that inform the firmware about when these events happened. The PG contains an atrial timer and a ventricular timer that measure the elapsed time since the last atrial or the last ventricular event, respectively. When a contraction is sensed or a pace is given, these timers contain the time interval between the sense or pace and the last atrial or last ventricular event, respectively. Together with the sense or pace event, the values of the timers are sent to the firmware. In the firmware these values are denoted by aa int (representing the time interval between the last atrial event and the last but one atrial event), av int (representing the time interval between the last ventricular event and the atrial event before this ventricular event), va int and vv int.

The sense and pace events from the PG are the most important external events when the pacemaker is in operation.

Vitatron is a growing, European based international pacemaker company. The company started in 1956, implanting its first pacemaker in 1962. Since 1986, Vitatron has been part of Medtronic, the world leader in medical technology. As a highly successful and subsidiary, Vitatron offers a unique technology stream that is complementary to Medtronic's products. In 2003, Vitatron introduced the world's first fully digital pacemaker: innovative, efficient and close to perfection.