Integrated Ablation Catheter for Rhythm Disorder Targeting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical therapies for heart rhythm disorders, particularly complex arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia, face challenges in accurately identifying and targeting source regions for treatment, leading to variable success rates and inefficiencies due to inadequate navigation and mapping techniques.
Innovation Solution
A personalized digital medicine approach using a probe or catheter to detect electrical signals from biological tissue, providing navigational guidance to source regions and enabling direct treatment without tool changes, employing machine learning algorithms and personal digital phenotypes to tailor therapy based on individual patient data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional mapping and navigation techniques are used to identify source regions for heart rhythm disorders, then the treatment can be performed with standard tools, but the accuracy and efficiency of identifying and targeting source regions deteriorates, leading to variable success rates and prolonged treatment time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines mapping, navigation, and treatment functions into a single integrated catheter system. The catheter simultaneously performs electrical signal detection for source region identification, provides navigational guidance through embedded sensors, and delivers treatment through integrated ablation elements, eliminating the need for separate tools and procedures for each function.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter is designed as a multi-functional device that can detect electrical signals, navigate to target locations, and deliver therapeutic energy. This universal tool replaces multiple specialized devices, allowing the same instrument to perform diagnosis, navigation, and treatment in a single procedure.
2Productivity
If conventional navigation and mapping techniques are used, then standard tools can be employed, but the efficiency of targeting source regions deteriorates, requiring frequent tool changes and prolonging the procedure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges mapping electrodes, navigation sensors, and treatment elements into a single catheter assembly. This integration eliminates the need to exchange between separate mapping catheters, navigation tools, and ablation devices, allowing continuous operation without tool changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The single catheter performs multiple functions including electrical signal sensing, anatomical mapping, navigational guidance, and therapeutic delivery. This multi-functional design reduces the total number of devices required from multiple specialized tools to one integrated system.
3Reliability
If personalized therapy approaches are implemented, then treatment success rates improve through accurate patient-specific targeting, but the complexity of data processing and algorithm implementation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically processes electrical signal data and generates personalized treatment plans without requiring manual analysis. The machine learning algorithms autonomously identify source regions, predict treatment outcomes, and guide catheter navigation, reducing the need for complex manual data processing while maintaining high success rates.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual data analysis and treatment planning with automated machine learning algorithms. The system uses computational models to process electrical signals and determine optimal treatment targets, substituting human expertise with algorithmic analysis that can handle complex patterns more consistently.
4Productivity
If integrated catheter with navigation and treatment capabilities is used, then the number of tool changes is reduced improving efficiency, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter integrates multiple functional components including sensing electrodes, navigation sensors, and treatment elements into a single device. This merging of functions into one unified tool eliminates the need for multiple separate devices and reduces procedure time despite the increased internal complexity of the catheter design.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach improves the accuracy and efficiency of identifying and treating source regions for heart rhythm disorders, reducing treatment time and risk by personalizing therapy and navigating directly to optimal treatment locations, thus enhancing treatment success rates.
Implementation Method 1
a sensor to detect electrical signals from tissue and provide directional guidance to move the sensor in three dimensions within the biological organ towards optimal locations for therapy
Data Source
AI summary
An ablation catheter for treating electrical rhythm disorders includes an array of sensor electrodes to detect electrical signals to determine a location of a target region for treatment. If the catheter is not optimally positioned at the target region, a controller uses the detected signals to guide movement of the catheter towards the target region. Once proper positioning is ascertained, the controller activates ablation components within the catheter to deliver energy to modify tissue at the target region.