A method of detecting a cardiac event in a medical device that includes sensing cardiac signals from a plurality of electrodes forming a first sensing vector and a second sensing vector, determining whether a signal energy content metric of the sensed cardiac signals is within predetermined limits, determining whether a noise to signal ratio of the sensed cardiac signals is less than a signal to noise threshold, determining whether the sensed cardiac signals are associated with muscle noise, and determining whether a mean frequency corresponding to the sensed cardiac signals is less than a mean frequency threshold.