A Monte Carlo simulation of range for an invasive impedance respiration monitor

One method of rate responsive pacing utilizes an analog of minute ventilation as the input to the rate control algorithm. A measure of the intravenous impedance along the pacing catheter is a convenient means of determining minute ventilation. Design of the impedance converter requires a knowledge of the range of DC and AC impedance signals. During normal and deep breathing, 116 AC measurements were taken from 34 Electrophysiology (EP) patients and 31 DC measurements were taken from 13 EP patients. The patient data produced skewed distributions with a normal AC mean of 0.45 +/- 0.40 ohms p-p, a deep AC mean of 2.0 +/- 1.6 ohms and a DC mean of 44 +/- 13 ohms. An eight variable static model was derived from prior work. Five of the physiological variables were chosen from established clinical ranges, one geometrical variable was chosen from prior work and two were selected by matching the statistics of a Monte Carlo analysis of the model with the statistics of the patient data. The blood resistivity was obtained from prior work. A simulation of 1000 measurements produced a normal breathing range of 0 to 2.24 ohms, a deep breathing range of 0 to 9.6 ohms and a DC range of 19 to 100 ohms.