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Abstract

A protection circuit for a defibrillator that prevents a defibrillator pulse from being generated if the impedance between the defibrillator's electrode leads is not characteristic of the impedance between a pair of defibrillator electrodes properly connected to the defibrillator. The impedance measuring circuit applies a current to the electrode leads and the resulting voltage is measured to provide an indication of the electrode's impedance. The current is applied between the electrodes at about 33 kHz to approximate the impedance between a pair of defibrillator electrodes during a defibrillation pulse. The output of the measurement circuit is converted to an 8 bit word by an analog-to-digital converter and read by a microprocessor which compares the measured impedance to various impedance values in order to either generate an enable signal for the defibrillator or display messages indicative of open or short circuited electrode leads or a patient monitoring electrode connected to the electrode leads. The impedance measurement circuit operates in either of two ranges which are selected by the microprocessor on the basis of the measured impedance values.

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First Claim