Test to Fracture of Cardiac Lead Coils in Unidirectional Bending Fatigue

摘要

A new test method for generating in-vitro unidirectional bending fatigue fractures has been developed. The method has been used to measure the fatigue curvature-vs.-life relationship of four coils within four defibrillation lead designs. The results are consistent with conventional fatigue theory. The test method and curvature-based fatigue curves are well suited for use alongside existing techniques for measuring the in-vivo curvature change in leads. Future work is needed to expand the testing into high cycle fatigue realms, and to evaluate the sensitivity of fatigue performance to coil design parameters.