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.
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.
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.
IR CU19295
Licensing Contact: Dovina Qu
