A device for monitoring cardiac activity in pediatric patients and
providing therapeutic stimuli to the pediatric patient such that the basic
pacing rate of therapy provided varies so as to closely match the normal
variation in a pediatric patient's normal heart rate. In one aspect, the
device is initialized with the patient's age at implantation and, via time
updates provided by a timer, changes the intrinsic rate of stimulation in
accordance with an average heart rate for the patient's age. In another
aspect, the device monitors a proxy signal indicative of the patient's
age, such as the respiration rate via the minute respiration signal, and
varies the intrinsic rate of stimulation in accordance with the proxy
indicator of age. In this aspect, the intrinsic stimulation rate is set at
a multiple of the respiration rate wherein the multiple is between 6 and
10.
