Abstract: An exemplary method includes sensing respiratory information related to tidal volume, based at least in part on the respiratory information, determining if the tidal volume is less than a limit and, if the tidal volume is less than the limit, calling for diaphragm activation at a stimulation power based on a nonincreasing monotonic relationship with respect to decreasing difference between the tidal volume and the limit. Various other technologies are also disclosed.

Abstract: A method of treating a heart with an implantable cardiac stimulation device involves transiently disturbing the steady state hemodynamic parameters by altering a cardiac cycle timing interval sufficient to reduce end diastolic volume for that cycle. The cardiac cycle timing interval is then adaptively controlled for successive cardiac cycles to achieve a second set of hemodynamic parameters.

Abstract: An implantable cardiac stimulation device in which cross-chamber stimulation is avoided. The present device is intended for use an implantable device that is intended to stimulate one or more cardiac chambers, for example, in a dual-chamber or multi-chamber device. According to one illustrative embodiment of the device, capture thresholds are determined for a first chamber that is intended to be captured, and also for a second chamber that is not intended to be captured. The stimulation energy is then set to a level based upon the respective capture thresholds.