DEVICE AND METHOD FOR MEASURING CARDIAC FUNCTION

A device and method for determining at least the left ventricular end diastolic volume LVEDV of a beating heart of in particular a human being, is disclosed, the device comprising - a current source - supply electrodes, for supplying alternating current to the body, - measuring electrodes, for receiving an impedance signal, - measuring means, for measuring said impedance signal, - a processing unit, for processing and outputting the value of said impedance signal and the first time derivative thereof, and means for determining the duration DFT of a heartbeat, and wherein the processing unit is designed for determining and outputting the value of LVEDV in dependence of both said duration DFT and said impedance and the change of the first time derivative of said impedance during the pre-ejection period. Also, a device and method for measuring a blood flow through a coronary system of a heart. It was realized that said blood flow causes a temporary change in the impedance of the coronary system, in the form of a peak in a first time-derivative of the impedance signal. The method comprises measuring an impedance signal across the body region containing the coronary system as a function of time, determining a first derivative of the impedance signal with respect to time, and calculating the blood flow from a peak hight of a certain peak signal in said derivative impedance signal. The device comprises a bioimpedance measuring device adapted for the method. Furthermore, a method and a device for determining a peak blood flow signal of a blood flow through at least a section of a selected coronary artery of a beating heart of a mammal, in particular a human being, wherein said device comprises a bioimpedance measuring device. The method and device selects part of a bi.oimpedance signal, and calculates a peak velocity from it. This may e.g. be used to map the peak blood flow velocity along a coronary artery, in order to find possible stenoses in the vessel. La présente invention concerne un dispositif et un procédé pour déterminer au moins le volume diastolique final du ventricule gauche (LVEDV) du coeur en particulier d'un être humain, le dispositif comprenant: une source de courant; des électrodes d'alimentation qui servent à appliquer au corps un courant alternatif; des électrodes de mesure qui servent à recevoir un signal d'impédance; un système de mesure qui sert à mesurer ledit signal d'impédance; une unité de traitement qui sert à traiter et à fournir la val