70 results about "Cardiac structure" patented technology

The present invention is directed to a deployment system for an endoluminal device. The deployment system includes a confining sheath placed around a compacted endoluminal device. A deployment line is provided in the system that is an integral extension of the sheath. As the deployment line is actuated, the sheath retracts from around the compacted endoluminal device. As the sheath retracts from around the endoluminal device, material from the sheath may be converted into deployment line. Once the sheath is retracted from around the compacted endoluminal device, the endoluminal device expands in configuration and repairs vascular or cardiac structures of an implant recipient. Any remaining sheath material is removed from the implantation site along with the deployment line. The deployment system also includes an endo-prosthesis mounting member placed between the endoluminal device and an underlying catheter. The endo-prosthesis mounting member serves to cushion and retain the endoluminal device when constrained by the sheath and may assist in expansion of the endoluminal device when unconstrained by the sheath. The present invention is also directed to a deployment system having a deployment assembly that simultaneously expands an endo-prosthesis mounting member while removing a sheath from an expandable medical device.

An intracardiac device for restoring the functional elasticity of the cardiac structures, in particular for the treatment of cardiomyopathies and or valvulopathies, by storing energy from the cardiac structures and ceding energy to the cardiac structures during the cardiac cycle, has an elongated shape, is at least partially wound in coils and is attachable to a cardiac structure; the coils are selected in material, number and dimension so as to allow an elastic elongation of the intracardiac device higher than 10% of the rest length of the intracardiac device and are exposed, in use, to the blood flow.

Disclosed are methods, compounds and compositions useful for treatment of a patient with valvular dysfunction. The invention relates to using stem cells, modified stem cells, derivatives thereof, and agents stimulatory to stem cells in order to substantially ameliorate, and in some cases induce a therapeutic benefit, to a patient suffering from a dysfunction of the mitral, aortic, tricuspid, or pulmonary valve. In some embodiments the invention treats the valve dysfunction itself, whereas in other embodiments treatment of associated cardiac structures is performed. Furthermore, in other embodiments the invention permits physiological compensation for the valve dysfunction, prolonging the time until surgical intervention is needed.

A device for creating a surgical perforation with a functional distal tip for creating a controlled perforation. The functional tip may comprise at least one active electrode for creating the perforation through the application of Radio Frequency (RF) energy. The device is curved in order to decrease the likelihood of injury to structures of a patient such as inadvertent cardiac perforation when used in transseptal perforation procedures. The device is introduced into the right atrium, and the functional tip is then positioned against the atrial septum. Energy is applied to create the perforation. The tip is advanced toward the left atrium to create the perforation and as it advances into the left atrium, the device takes on its curved shape to direct the tip away from cardiac structures. The position of the tip of the device can be determined in response to pressure sensed at the tip and determined by a monitor.

A spacer for creating a docking station for a transcatheter heart valve is provided. The spacer changes an effective diameter and/or a shape of an implanted bioprosthetic structure such as a bioprosthetic heart valve or annuloplasty ring, providing a supporting structure into which the transcatheter valve expands without over expanding. The spacer may be deployed through an interventional technique either through transseptal access, transfemoral access, or transapical access and is typically deployed at least in part on an inflow portion of the implanted bioprosthetic structure.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for generating at least a 3D image responsive to moving cardiac structure and blood, and extracting clinically relevant information based on anatomical landmarks located within the heart. One embodiment of the present invention comprises at least a front end and at least one processor. The front-end is arranged to transmit ultrasound waves into the moving cardiac structure and blood of a heart and generate received signals in response to ultrasound waves backscattered from the said moving cardiac structure and blood. The at least one processor responsive to the received signals to acquire 3D ultrasound data containing at least one view of the heart, identify an AV-plane using the at least one acquired view, and generate a cardiac 3D image of at least a portion of the heart using at least one identified AV-plane. At least the 3D image may be displayed to a user.

An ultrasound device is disclosed that includes a method and apparatus for generating an image responsive to moving cardiac structure and blood, and for adjusting at least one acquisition parameter based on, at least in part, locating at least one anatomical landmark within a heart. At least one processor, responsive to signals received from the heart, locates anatomical landmarks within the cardiac structure, generate position information of the anatomical landmarks, and adjusts at least one acquisition parameter. The landmarks and acquisition parameters may be displayed to a user of the ultrasound device.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for extracting ultrasound summary information useful for increasing efficiency of quantitation of a stress echo examination performed using an ultrasound machine. One embodiment of the present invention comprises a front-end arranged to transmit ultrasound waves into moving cardiac structure and blood and generate received signals in response to the ultrasound waves backscattered from moving cardiac structure and blood. At least one processor responsive to the received signals identifies at least one anatomical landmark within the heart, generates a report based at least in part on one key parameter extracted from the anatomical landmark, and scores the at least one extracted parameter. The anatomical landmarks, reports, and scores may be displayed to a user.

A method and apparatus for suture-less placement of an occluding patch in which release of the device can be accelerated. In one embodiment, an inactive form of an adhesive is applied on the area of the patch that will come into contact with cardiac tissue; this allows for the introduction and necessary manipulation of the catheter system until activation of the adhesive occurs. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the adhesive properties of certain polymeric materials are relied upon rather than their ability to cure or harden into a specific shape. In another embodiment, the patch is immediately released utilizing a detaching mechanism on the balloon or the balloon catheter which supports the patch; the patch along with the inflated balloon remain on the cardiac structure occluding the opening.

A method is provided for increasing blood flow in or about a cardiac structure to prevent thrombosis. One step of the method includes providing an implantable sprayer having an elongated tubular body with proximal and distal end portions. The distal end portion includes at least one opening and an anchoring mechanism. The distal end portion of the implantable sprayer is inserted into a cardiac chamber that includes the cardiac structure. The anchoring mechanism is then deployed so that the distal end portion of the implantable sprayer is secured in or about the cardiac structure. Next, the proximal end portion is anastomosed with an artery so that blood flows through the elongated tubular body of the implantable sprayer and is sprayed out of the at least one opening to continuously circulate blood in or about the cardiac structure.

Methods to identify and risk stratify disease states, cardiac structural defects, functional cardiac deficiencies induced by teratogens and other toxic agents, pathological substrates, conduction delays and defects, and ejection fraction using single channel biological data obtained from the subject. A modified Matching Pursuit (MP) algorithm may be used to find a noiseless model of the data that is sparse and does not assume periodicity of the signal. After the model is derived, various metrics and subspaces are extracted to characterize the cardiac system. In another method, space-time domain is divided into a number of regions (which is largely determined by the signal length), the density of the signal is computed in each region and input to a learning algorithm to associate them to the desired cardiac dysfunction indicator target.

The invention discloses a method for visualizing a three-dimensional anatomical tissue structure model of a human heart based on a ray cast volume rendering algorithm which, relates to the method for visualizing the three-dimensional anatomical model of the human heart and solves the problem of incapability of visualizing the anatomical tissue structure model of the heart in the prior art. The method comprises the following steps of: (1) obtaining a heart three-dimensional volume data set; (2) selecting a sampling point; (3) calculating a gradient of each volume element in a heart three-dimensional volume data set space; (4) obtaining brightness of each volume element in the heart three-dimensional volume data set space under light; (5) calculating an opacity value and a color value of each volume element; (6) obtaining the opacity value and the color value of each volume element; (7) obtaining pixel point color values corresponding to projection light beams on an image plane; and (8) rendering an image of the heart three-dimensional anatomical tissue structure model according to each pixel point color value on the image plane. The invention lays the foundation for exactly simulating the structure appearance and the behaving function of the heart.

The present invention is thus directed to methods and apparatus for decreasing pressure in a first portion of a vessel of the cardiac structure of a patient by implanting a shunt communicating with an area outside said first portion, whereby a volume of blood sufficient to reduce pressure in said first portion is released. Preferably, the first portion comprises the left ventricle and the pressure reduced is the end diastolic pressure, which is accomplished by having the shunt communicate with the left ventricle so a small volume of blood is released from the left ventricle to reduce the end diastolic pressure. Most preferably, the shunt selectively permits flow when a pressure differential between the left ventricle and another chamber of a heart above a threshold pressure, whereby shunting is prevented during left ventricular systole, or, alternatively, selectively permits flow when a pressure differential between the left ventricle and another chamber of a heart is between a lower threshold and a higher threshold, whereby shunting is again prevented during left ventricular systole. In certain embodiments a semi-passive check-valve is controlled and actuated by an external signal, either using a signal generated by an intra-corporeal electrical battery or an externally coupled energy source. In certain embodiments, the shunt has a pump with an input connected to the left ventricle, or other portion with excessive pressure, and an output connected to a volume of lower pressure. The preferred method of implanting the shunt to effect the present invention is by deploying a tubular element having two ends and a tissue affixation element disposed at each of said ends via a catheter, preferably, the fixation element is a shape retaining metallic material that returns to its original shape as part of the retention aspect of its function. In preferred embodiments of the apparatus, the tubular element is comprised of a biologically inert non-metallic material.

A method and system for model based fusion pre-operative image data, such as computed tomography (CT), and intra-operative C-arm CT is disclosed. A first pericardium model is segmented in the pre-operative image data and a second pericardium model is segmented in a C-arm CT volume. A deformation field is estimated between the first pericardium model and the second pericardium model. A model of a target cardiac structure, such as a heart chamber model or an aorta model, extracted from the pre-operative image data is fused with the C-arm CT volume based on the estimated deformation field between the first pericardium model and the second pericardium model. An intelligent weighted average may be used improve the model based fusion results using models of the target cardiac structure extracted from pre-operative image data of patients other than a current patient.

The present invention is thus directed to methods and apparatus for decreasing pressure in a first portion of a vessel of the cardiac structure of a patient by implanting a shunt communicating with an area outside said first portion, whereby a volume of blood sufficient to reduce pressure in said first portion is released. Preferably, the first portion comprises the left ventricle and the pressure reduced is the end diastolic pressure, which is accomplished by having the shunt communicate with the left ventricle so a small volume of blood is released from the left ventricle to reduce the end diastolic pressure. Most preferably, the shunt selectively permits flow when a pressure differential between the left ventricle and another chamber of a heart above a threshold pressure, whereby shunting is prevented during left ventricular systole, or, alternatively, selectively permits flow when a pressure differential between the left ventricle and another chamber of a heart is between a lower threshold and a higher threshold, whereby shunting is again prevented during left ventricular systole. In certain embodiments a semi-passive check-valve is controlled and actuated by an external signal, either using a signal generated by an intra-corporeal electrical battery or an externally coupled energy source. In certain embodiments, the shunt has a pump with an input connected to the left ventricle, or other portion with excessive pressure, and an output connected to a volume of lower pressure. The preferred method of implanting the shunt to effect the present invention is by deploying a tubular element having two ends and a tissue affixation element disposed at each of said ends via a catheter, preferably, the fixation element is a shape retaining metallic material that returns to its original shape as part of the retention aspect of its function. In preferred embodiments of the apparatus, the tubular element is comprised of a biologically inert non-metallic material.

The invention discloses a heart disease risk prediction system, comprising a computer vision pipeline for processing cardiac ultrasound, wherein the computer vision pipeline for processing cardiac ultrasound comprises a view identification classification, a U-Net convolution neural network for cardiac structure identification, cardiac muscle shape tracking, cardiac muscle shape feature vector extraction, electrocardiogram feature data extraction, clinical feature data extraction, depth learning network architecture and data acquisition and training to predict the probability; Through artificial intelligence to assist automatic ultrasound image recognition and diagnosis, Multidimensional myocardial speckle tracking and prediction of ischemic heart failure were calculated, The combination of medical history, clinical data and biomarkers realizes disease prediction on the machine learning platform, and establishes the first artificial intelligence-assisted accurate, sensitive, efficient,automated and scalable cardiovascular screening system, which realizes low-cost, high-accuracy heart disease prediction and early diagnosis system.

The present invention is directed to a method for combining assessment of different factors of dyssynchrony into a comprehensive, non-invasive toolbox for treating patients with a CRT therapy device. The toolbox provides high spatial resolution, enabling assessment of regional function, as well as enabling derivation of global metrics to improve patient response and selection for CRT therapy. The method allows for quantitative assessment and estimation of mechanical contraction patterns, tissue viability, and venous anatomy from CT scans combined with electrical activation patterns from Body Surface Potential Mapping (BSPM). This multi-modal method is therefore capable of integrating electrical, mechanical, and structural information about cardiac structure and function in order to guide lead placement of CRT therapy devices. The method generates regional electro-mechanical properties overlaid with cardiac venous distribution and scar tissue. The fusion algorithm for combining all of the data suggests cardiac segments and routes for implantation of epicardial pacing leads.

To provide a simulation system of cardiac function utilizing a cardiac structure model which is generated based on an appropriate composite material view representing the myocardial tissue. A simulation system of cardiac function to predict a change in cardiac geometry using a cardiac structure model contains a material specification input part 11 to determine both connective tissue data and myocyte data, a geometry data input part 13 to input geometry data of three-dimensional geometry of a heart, and a cardiac-structure-model construction part 14 wherein a cardiac structure model assumes assembly of finite elements based on continuum data of three-dimensional geometry defined by geometry data and made of composite material containing matrix and reinforcement fiber, and possesses mechanical properties of reinforcement fiber reflecting mechanical properties of connective tissue data and mechanical properties of matrix reflecting mechanical properties of myocyte data. The simulation system also contains a simulation part 15 which predicts a change of geometry of the cardiac structure model produced by pressure load utilizing finite element method with computation.