Cardiac ablation monitoring with intracardiac echocardiography (ICE)

This technology is a method of monitoring catheter ablation of faulty electrical pathways in the myocardial tissue of the heart using ultrasound catheter-guided intracardiac echocardiography.

Unmet Need: Accurate cardiac ablation for cardiac arrhythmia to reduce the need for subsequent treatments

Catheter ablation is one of the most effective therapies to treat cardiac arrythmias; a catheter is used to create lesions in cardiac tissue to stall aberrant electrical signals, thereby correcting arrythmias. However, up to half of first-time ablations are unsuccessful, due to poor lesion placement or insufficient lesion depth, and thus require repeat ablation procedures. This high failure rate is due to the absence of a reliable technology that allows clinicians to visualize lesion formation, distribution, and geometry.

The Technology: Intracardiac catheter monitoring for reliable cardiac ablation of arrhythmias

This technology proposes using intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) to monitor lesion formation during cardiac ablation treatment for arrythmias. This system collects radiofrequency data during the ablation procedure to generate a strain map and indicate the presence of lesioned tissue in the heart. The technology includes an algorithm which classifies each pixel of the radiofrequency data as “lesion” or “healthy”, based on the strain value. This technology can reduce the number of repeat catheter ablations in arrythmia patients by allowing clinicians to visualize lesion formation during the ablation procedure.

Validation of this technology is ongoing in a canine model.

Applications:

• Improving results of catheter-guided cardiac ablation to treat arrhythmias
• Strain assessment during ultrasound imaging
• Visualization of invasive lesioning treatments
• Development of myocardium lesioning technology

Advantages:

• Reduces need for repeat cardiac ablations
• Allows doctors to see the lesions they create as they create them
• Allows for more reliable cardiac ablation procedures
• Visualization of lesion spatial distribution (identification of gaps)
• Visualization of lesion geometry (depth of lesion into the tissue wall)

Lead Inventor:

Elisa Konofagou, Ph.D.

Patent Information:

Patent Status

Related Publications:

• Sayseng V, Grondin J, Salgaonkar VA, Grubb CS, Basij M, Mehrmohammadi M, Iyer V, Wang D, Garan H, Wan EY, Konofagou EE. “Catheter Ablation Lesion Visualization With Intracardiac Strain Imaging in Canines and Humans” IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control. 2020 Sep; 67(9): 1800-1810.

Tech Ventures Reference:

• IR CU19295

• Licensing Contact: Dovina Qu