Cardiac Net Pacing Electrode Circumference Coverage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for placing electrodes outside the heart, such as cardiac nets, have insufficient pacing effects due to the time it takes for excitatory stimuli to reach heart muscle and uneven distribution, particularly in treating severe tachycardia and cardiac remodeling.
Innovation Solution
A cardiac net with a pacing electrode covering half or more of the cardiac ventricle's circumference, formed by a stretchable non-conductive mesh and connected to an implanted cardioverter defibrillator or cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator, providing synchronous excitatory stimulus and stable placement using biocompatible materials and various knitting techniques.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If electrodes are placed outside the heart using conventional cardiac nets, then the invasiveness is reduced, but the pacing effects become insufficient due to delayed and uneven distribution of excitatory stimuli
Solution Approach 1:
The cardiac net is segmented into multiple regions with different functional properties: conductive regions containing electrode portions for delivering excitatory stimuli, and non-conductive regions for electrical isolation. This segmentation allows the net to provide both reduced invasiveness and effective pacing by distributing electrodes across multiple strategic locations on the heart surface, enabling simultaneous stimulation of multiple cardiac regions to achieve synchronized contraction.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the cardiac net are assigned different electrical properties: conductive electrode portions for stimulus delivery and non-conductive portions for isolation. This local differentiation of properties allows the net to deliver focused excitatory stimuli to specific cardiac regions while preventing unwanted electrical spread, thereby improving pacing effectiveness without increasing invasiveness.
2Reliability
If the cardiac net uses conductive wires for electrodes, then electrical connectivity is achieved, but the net loses stretchability and flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The cardiac net employs a composite structure combining conductive materials (such as conductive polymers, conductive threads, or coated wires) with stretchable non-conductive mesh materials. The conductive components are integrated into the flexible net structure, allowing the net to maintain both electrical connectivity for effective pacing and mechanical stretchability to conform to the heart's surface geometry and accommodate cardiac motion and deformation.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the cardiac net is designed to accommodate patients with cardiac remodeling, then versatility is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cardiac net is designed as a universal device that can accommodate both patients with and without cardiac remodeling through its flexible, adaptable structure. The net can be configured with appropriate electrode placements and densities to address different clinical scenarios: standard pacing for typical patients and enhanced compression or specialized electrode patterns for patients with cardiac remodeling. This multi-functionality is achieved without significantly increasing device complexity by using a modular design where the same basic net structure serves multiple therapeutic purposes.
Data Source
AI summary
A cardiac net with at least one electrode enhances the pacing effect on a ventricle. The cardiac net with at least one electrode includes non-conductive portions formed by weaving non-conductive or conductive thread, defibrillation electrodes, and pacing electrodes, which are connected to one another. The defibrillation electrodes are configured to cover the circumference of the heart substantially horizontally, and are placed on an upper side and a lower side of the heart. The pacing electrodes are placed between the defibrillation electrodes and used for sensing the motions of the heart and pacing the ventricle. The pacing electrodes are configured to cover the circumference of the heart substantially horizontally so as to overlay the center of a spiral wave reentry. This configuration allows excitatory stimulus to be applied to the heart from the circumference thereof, thereby enabling the pacing electrodes to perform effective pacing.