Articulating Camera Catheter for Clear Heart Tissue Imaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Direct visualization within the heart is challenging due to the opacity of blood, which obscures tissues, and existing catheters face difficulties in providing clear views for accurate diagnosis and treatment of heart valve diseases.
Innovation Solution
A direct visualization catheter with an articulating camera assembly within a transparent balloon at its distal end, allowing the camera to adjust its viewing direction between delivery and deployed configurations, enabling clear visualization of tissues by displacing blood with a transparent fluid and providing optical clarity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a transparent balloon is used to displace blood and provide optical lensing, then visualization clarity is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter is divided into functional segments: an elongate shaft for delivery, a transparent balloon for blood displacement and optical clarity, and a camera assembly for imaging. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function optimally while maintaining overall system manageability.
Solution Approach 2:
The transparent balloon acts as an intermediary between the blood pool and the camera, displacing blood to create a clear optical path. The balloon's transparency and lensing properties mediate the interaction between the imaging system and the obscured tissue, enabling visualization without direct camera contact with blood.
2Measurement precision
If the camera is positioned to face axially for tissue visualization, then imaging capability is improved, but the catheter profile increases making insertion difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The camera assembly is designed with dynamic positioning capability, allowing it to articulate between different orientations. During delivery, the camera faces radially with a low profile; upon deployment, it articulates to face axially for optimal tissue visualization. This dynamic reconfiguration resolves the contradiction between imaging capability and deliverability.
Solution Approach 2:
The camera assembly transitions from a radial orientation during delivery to an axial orientation during deployment. This dimensional change in camera positioning allows the system to achieve both a low-profile delivery state and an optimal imaging state, effectively resolving the geometric contradiction.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the camera assembly is made articulating with adjustment mechanism, then versatility of viewing angles is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The camera assembly incorporates an articulation mechanism that allows dynamic adjustment of the camera's viewing angle. The camera can be positioned to face radially during delivery and then articulated to face axially or at various intermediate angles during deployment, providing versatile viewing capabilities while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure.
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
The catheter allows for high-resolution imaging of heart tissues with reduced patient distress during insertion and removal, enhancing diagnostic accuracy and treatment efficacy by maintaining a low profile during delivery and providing clear axial views for effective tissue observation.
Implementation Method 1
The balloon can be filled with saline and provide an optical lensing effect, further clarifying the view of a camera within the balloon at the end of the catheter.
Data Source
AI summary
A direct visualization catheter includes a handle, a balloon, an elongate shaft, and a camera assembly. The elongate shaft has a proximal end and a distal end opposite the proximal end. The proximal end is coupled to the handle. The distal end is coupled to the balloon and defines a longitudinal axis. The camera assembly is coupled to the distal end of the elongate shaft and is disposed within the balloon. The camera assembly includes a camera and an adjustment mechanism for varying a configuration of the camera relative to the distal end of the elongate shaft between a delivery configuration and a deployed configuration. The camera faces primarily in a radial direction in the delivery configuration and the camera faces primarily in an axial direction in the deployed configuration.