60 results about "Cardiac mapping" patented technology

Apparatus and surgical methods establish temporary suction attachment to a target site on the surface of a beating heart for analyzing electrical signals or hemodynamic responses to applied signals at the target sites for enhancing the accuracy of placement of cardiac electrodes at selected sites and for enhancing accurate placement of a surgical instrument maintained in alignment with the suction attachment. A suction port on the distal end of a supporting cannula carries surface-contacting electrodes and provides suction attachment to facilitate temporary positioning of the electrodes in contact with tissue at the target site, and a clamping and release mechanism to facilitate anchoring a cardiac electrode on the moving surface of a beating heart at a selected site. Analyses of sensed signals or responses to applied signals at target sites promote epicardial mapping of a patient's heart for determining optimum sites at which to attach cardiac electrodes.

A system (10) for determining electrical potentials on an endocardial surface of a heart is provided. The system includes a non-contact, non-expandable, miniature, multi-electrode catheter probe (12), a plurality of electrodes (32) disposed on an end portion (30) thereof, means for determining endocardial potentials (14) based on electrical potentials measured by the catheter probe, a matrix of coefficients that is generated based on a geometric relationship between the probe surface, and the endocardial surface. A method is also provided.

A system and method for cardiac mapping and ablation include a multi-electrode catheter introduced percutaneously into a subject's heart and deployable adjacent to various endocardial sites. The electrodes are connectable to a mapping unit, an ablation power unit a pacing unit, all of which are under computer control. Intracardiac electrogram signals emanated from a tachycardia site of origin are detectable by the electrodes. Their arrival times are processed to generate various visual maps to provide real-time guidance for steering the catheter to the tachycardia site of origin. In another aspect, the system also include a physical imaging system which is capable of providing different imaged physical views of the catheter and the heart. These physical views are incorporated into the various visual maps to provide a more physical representation. Once the electrodes are on top of the tachycardia site of origin, electrical energy is supplied by the ablation power unit to effect ablation.

An intra-cardiac mapping system is based on locating the ports through which blood flows in or out the heart chambers. For many procedures, such as ablation to cure atrial fibrillation, locating the pulmonary veins and the mitral valve accurately allows to perform a Maze procedure. The location of the ports and valves is based on using the convective cooling effect of the blood flow. The mapping can be performed by a catheter-deployed expandable net or a scanning catheter. The same net or catheter can also perform the ablation procedure.

An instrument including an elongated shaft and a non-conductive handle is disclosed. The shaft defines a proximal section and a distal section. The distal section forms an electrically conductive tip. Further, the shaft is adapted to be transitionable from a straight state to a first bent state. The shaft is capable of independently maintaining the distinct shapes associated with the straight state and the first bent state. The handle is rigidly coupled to the proximal section of the shaft. The instrument is useful for epicardial pacing and / or mapping of the heart for temporary pacing on a beating heart, for optimizing the placement of ventricular leads for the treatment of patients with congestive heart failure and ventricular dysynchrony and / or for use in surgical ablation procedures.

A system and method for cardiac mapping and ablation include a multi-electrode catheter introduced percutaneously into a subject's heart and deployable adjacent to various endocardial sites. The electrodes are connectable to a mapping unit, an ablation power unit a pacing unit, all of which are under computer control. Intracardiac electrogram signals emanated from a tachycardia site of origin are detectable by the electrodes. Their arrival times are processed to generate various visual maps to provide real-time guidance for steering the catheter to the tachycardia site of origin. In another aspect, the system also include a physical imaging system which is capable of providing different imaged physical views of the catheter and the heart. These physical views are incorporated into the various visual maps to provide a more physical representation. Once the electrodes are on top of the tachycardia site of origin, electrical energy is supplied by the ablation power unit to effect ablation.

An intra-cardiac mapping system is based on locating the ports through which blood flows in or out the heart chambers. For many procedures, such as ablation to cure atrial fibrillation, locating the pulmonary veins and the mitral valve accurately allows to perform a Maze procedure. The location of the ports and valves is based on using the convective cooling effect of the blood flow. The mapping can be performed by a catheter-deployed expandable net or a scanning catheter. The same net or catheter can also perform the ablation procedure.

A system and method for automatically registering a three dimensional (3D) pre-operative image of an anatomical structure with intra-operative electrophysiological (EP) points of a 3D electro-anatomical (EA) image map of the anatomical structure is disclosed. The pre-operative image is displayed in a first supporting view. The intra-operative EA image map is displayed in a second supporting view. An alignment of the pre-operative image with the intra-operative map is performed by identifying at least one corresponding point on each image. The view of the pre-operative image is integrated with the EA map based on the alignment.

A system for ablating and mapping tissue comprises a stand alone tissue ablation system adapted to ablate the tissue, and a stand alone cardiac mapping system adapted to map the tissue. The ablation system is operably coupled with the cardiac mapping system such that mapping data from the cardiac mapping system is provided to the ablation system to create a graphical display of the tissue and the ablation system position relative to the tissue. Motion of the ablation system may be monitored and adjusted based on feedback provided by ablation system actuators as well as position sensors.

A catheter maps an electrical conduction pattern in an annular region of a heart. The catheter has a tubular shaft that has a pre-shaped curved distal section adjacent the distal end thereof, and at least one lumen extending between the distal end and the proximal end of the shaft, with a plurality of electrodes disposed on the distal section. A handle is attached to the proximal end of the shaft, with a steering mechanism provided at the handle for adjusting the curvature of the distal section, and a deflection mechanism provided at the handle for deflecting the distal section. The electrodes are positioned in a parallel plane separate from the shaft when the distal section is undeflected.

Systems, methods, and devices allow percutaneous mapping, orientation and / or ablation in bodily cavities or lumens. Such may include a structure that is percutaneously positionable in a cavity, such as an intra-cardiac cavity of a heart. Transducers carried by the structure are responsive to blood flow. For example, the transducers may sense temperature, temperature being related to convective cooling caused by blood flow. A controller discerns positional information or location, based on signals from the transducers. For example, blood flow may be greater and / or faster proximate a port in cardiac tissue than proximate tissue spaced from the port. Position information may allow precise ablation of selected tissue, for example tissue surround a port in the intra-cardiac cavity.

A system and method for automatically registering a three dimensional (3D) pre-operative image of an anatomical structure with intra-operative electrophysiological (EP) points of a 3D electro-anatomical (EA) image map of the anatomical structure is disclosed. The pre-operative image is displayed in a first supporting view. The intra-operative EA image map is displayed in a second supporting view. An alignment of the pre-operative image with the intra-operative map is performed by identifying at least one corresponding point on each image. The view of the pre-operative image is integrated with the EA map based on the alignment.

A method and system of electroanatomical mapping comprises bringing a patient's image such as a fluoroscopic image and intracardiac signals into a computer based mapping system. Electroanatomical mapping or superimposing of cardiac electrical activity on fluoroscopic image is provided by placing visual indicators on electrode pairs of various catheters including standard catheters and ablation catheter. Visual indicators are coupled or linked to underlying electric signals from those electrode pairs via software coding, whereby electrical activity sequence of the heart is provided and updated in real-time on fluoroscopic image. A combination of fluoroscopic image and CT or MRI may also be used. The mapping system further comprises various algorithms for aiding in cardiac mapping and ablation of cardiac arrhythmias.

The invention provides a cardiac mapping signal analyzing and processing device and method, in particular to a device and method for analyzing the rhythm state of cardiac mapping signals. The device of the invention comprises a mapping electrode, a multistage amplifier, a data acquisition card, an acquisition module, a signal analyzing and processing unit and an output device. The method of the invention is based on the autocorrelation function and is characterized in that the time interval between the maximum peak and the second submaximum peak in the autocorrelation function sequence is used to estimate the main rhythm activation time interval of the signal, and the amplitude value of the submaximum peak is used as an index for measuring the regularity of the signal. The method of the invention can be used for the site analysis of the electrical activity of the heart in animal experiments and can also be used to assist the clinical diagnosis. As the system adopts the integrated acquisition and analysis structure and the method of the device is simple and effective, the device is characterized by wide application range and high real-time.

A method and system of electroanatomical mapping comprises bringing a patient's image such as a fluoroscopic image and intracardiac signals into a computer based mapping system. Electroanatomical mapping or superimposing of cardiac electrical activity on fluoroscopic image is provided by placing visual indicators on electrode pairs of various catheters including standard catheters and ablation catheter. Visual indicators are coupled or linked to underlying electric signals from those electrode pairs via software coding, whereby electrical activity sequence of the heart is provided and updated in real-time on fluoroscopic image. A combination of fluoroscopic image and CT or MRI may also be used. The mapping system further comprises various algorithms for aiding in cardiac mapping and ablation of cardiac arrhythmias.

An instrument including an elongated shaft and a non-conductive handle is disclosed. The shaft defines a proximal section and a distal section. The distal section forms an electrically conductive tip. Further, the shaft is adapted to be transitionable from a straight state to a first bent state. The shaft is capable of independently maintaining the distinct shapes associated with the straight state and the first bent state. The handle is rigidly coupled to the proximal section of the shaft. The instrument is useful for epicardial pacing and / or mapping of the heart for temporary pacing on a beating heart, for optimizing the placement of ventricular leads for the treatment of patients with congestive heart failure and ventricular dysynchrony and / or for use in surgical ablation procedures.

A non-contact cardiac mapping method is disclosed that includes: (i) inserting a catheter into a heart cavity having an endocardium surface, the catheter including multiple, spatially distributed electrodes; (ii) measuring signals at the catheter electrodes in response to electrical activity in the heart cavity with the catheter spaced from the endocardium surface; and (iii) determining physiological information at multiple locations of the endocardium surface based on the measured signals and positions of the electrodes with respect to the endocardium surface. Related systems and computer programs are also disclosed.

A catheter maps an electrical conduction pattern in an annular region of a heart. The catheter has a tubular shaft that has a pre-shaped curved distal section adjacent the distal end thereof, and at least one lumen extending between the distal end and the proximal end of the shaft, with a plurality of electrodes disposed on the distal section. A handle is attached to the proximal end of the shaft, with a steering mechanism provided at the handle for adjusting the curvature of the distal section, and a deflection mechanism provided at the handle for deflecting the distal section. The electrodes are positioned in a parallel plane separate from the shaft when the distal section is undeflected.

In a system and computer implemented method for mapping of an anatomic structure and bi-directional activation detection of electrograms such as atrial and / or ventricular electrograms, both positive and negative deflections of an electrogram signal are analyzed over an analysis time period of the signal. At least one characteristic of the electrogram signal is determined based at least in part on analyzing both positive and negative deflections of the signal over the analysis time period. The determined at least one characteristic of the atrial electrogram signal is then associated with a generated three-dimensional model of the anatomic structure.

The invention relates to a frequency domain correlation analysis method for cardiac mapping signals. The frequency domain correlation analysis method specifically comprises the following steps: electrocardiosignals are obtained with a cardiac mapping technology; power spectra containing dominant frequency peaks are obtained through preprocessing; the power spectra of two signals are correlated, and a correlation coefficient function with frequency as an independent variable is obtained; the maximum correlation coefficient F-Cmax is analyzed, and the frequency at the maximum value, namely, the maximum correlation frequency Ffmax is obtained. The frequency domain correlation analysis method not only can be applied to time dimension, namely, evaluation of the degree of correlation of signal rhythms in different time periods in the same position, but also can be applied to spatial dimension, namely, evaluation of the degree of correlation of the signal rhythms in different spatial positions in the same time period, can be used for studying correlation characteristics of electrical activity rhythms of myocardia in different positions and different time periods of the heart, can be used for analyzing sinus rhythm signals or arrhythmia signals, has certain application value in electrophysiological mechanism research and clinical medicine, and can be extended to quantitative research of all electrophysiological rhythm signals.

A cardiac information dynamic display system comprises: one or more electrodes configured to record sets of electric potential data representing cardiac activity at a plurality of time intervals; anda cardiac information console, comprising: a signal processor configured to: calculate sets of cardiac activity data at the plurality of time intervals using the recorded sets of electric potential data, wherein the cardiac activity data is associated with surface locations of one or more cardiac chambers; and a user interface module configured to display a series of images, each image comprising:a graphical representation of the cardiac activity. Methods of providing cardiac activity data are also provided.

A method and system for atrial fibrillation ablations utilizing a fluoroscopy and / or medical image(s) based cardiac mapping system adapted for balloon based catheters including cryoballoon catheter. The method and system incorporates overlaying two or more sets of images on top of each other where the transparency between the images can be adjusted as an aid in the optimal placement of the balloon based catheters. Further, tags and markers are also placed on fluoroscopic and / or other medical images indicative of where the tissue that has been ablated. The method and system also comprises the ability to monitor esophageal temperature, and to activate alarms and / or energy delivery interrupt based on pre-determined esophageal temperature parameters.

In a system and computer implemented method for mapping of an anatomic structure and bi-directional activation detection of electrograms such as atrial and / or ventricular electrograms, both positive and negative deflections of an electrogram signal are analyzed over an analysis time period of the signal. At least one characteristic of the electrogram signal is determined based at least in part on analyzing both positive and negative deflections of the signal over the analysis time period. The determined at least one characteristic of the atrial electrogram signal is then associated with a generated three-dimensional model of the anatomic structure.

The invention provides an atrial fibrillation analysis and prediction method based on a cardiac mapping excitation sequence diagram. The main idea of the atrial fibrillation analysis and prediction method is to convert a one-dimensional time sequence signal into two-dimensional image data. The specific process comprises the following steps: acquiring multiple paths of synchronously acquired electrocardiosignals by using an electrocardiographic mapping technology; drawing an equipotential diagram of the voltage amplitudes of sampling points at the same moment according to the positions of electrodes; synthesizing the equipotential diagrams in a certain period of time into an excitation sequence diagram according to a certain time interval; extracting features of the excitation sequence diagram in the time period, and analyzing and predicting atrial fibrillation by an image classification mode. The method can be used for researching the electrocardio conduction rule of a mapping area, issuitable for sinus heart rhythm signals or atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation signals, and has a certain application value in the electrophysiological mechanism research and clinical medicine. The method can be popularized to classification or prediction research of all electrophysiological signals.

The invention discloses an endocardium point-in-point insertion dynamic surface reconstruction method for use in a cardiac mapping system, comprising: A1: a catheter collects four affine independent points, and is initialized into a tetrahedral mesh by the above four affine independent points; A2: new sampling points are inserted, and a set of surface triangular patches that need to be replaced ina currently reconstructed surface mesh is calculated according to the newly inserted sampling points; A3: a Delaunay triangulation structure is updated, and also the current surface mesh structure isalso updated; A4: the currently reconstructed surface mesh is optimized by using local expansion and engraving; and A5: isolated points already in the Delaunay triangulation structure but not in thesurface mesh are inserted to improve the quality of the surface mesh. The above surface reconstruction method is more suitable for the sampling point step of the catheter in the operation, and is morefriendly to the doctor to grasp the current sampling situation, so as to significantly improve the reconstruction efficiency of the endometrial surface of the cardiac mapping system, and to better improve services of the lesion location and lesion analysis for the doctor.

Methods and system for atrial fibrillation ablations utilizing cardiac mapping based on medical image(s). The methods and system also adapted for any balloon based catheters including cryoballoon catheter, laser balloon catheter, or “hot balloon” catheter, as well as circular catheters. The methods and system includes overlaying of two or more images on top of each other (where the images are of various types or modalities) and aligning the images, where the transparency between the images can be adjusted for navigating and optimal placement of the balloon based catheters or circular catheters. The images include 3-dimensional (3D) volume rendered computed tomography (CT) or Magnetic Resonance (MR) in segments, where the segments represents anatomical structures in separate digital files, which can be selectively turned ON or OFF. The method and system may also comprise the ability to monitor esophageal temperature, and act on pre-determined levels.

The invention relates to a network modeling method of cardiac mapping signals. Specific steps include obtaining electrocardiograph (ECG) signals through a cardiac mapping technology, and taking each interested sit of the cardiac mapping signals as a network nod; calculating signal cross correlation coefficients among the nods, and determining whether connecting sides exist among the nods; calculating the number of connecting sides between each nod and other nods, and recording the number as a degree of the nod, and reflecting the nod degree by the nod area, when the degree is large, the area is large; and collecting a segment of ECG signals at intervals, and building a network model in the time interval, and observing topological structure and relevant parameter (such as the number of the network connecting sides, degrees of nods and the like) changes of the network models in the adjacent time intervals to study the network evolvement rule. The network modeling method can be used in studying spatial characteristics of information transfer among cardiac electrical activities of different parts of the heart.

The invention is a device, system, and method for imaging heart features and deploying implants therein, such as prosthetic heart valves. The invention uses 3D imaging with electrophysiological imaging, combined with prosthetic heart valve deployment. Real-time imaging vie ECHO or fluoroscopy or other real-time methods may be provided with the 3D image generated by the imaging system.