Catheter Electrode Designs for Flat Nose Profile and Structural Integrity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing catheter designs for cardiac ablation procedures face challenges in achieving a flat nose profile, sufficient collapse, and structural integrity, leading to inadequate tissue contact and potential failure under stress during deployment and use.
Innovation Solution
A catheter apparatus with an expandable basket assembly featuring flexible polymer circuit strips and resilient support elements, including Nitinol and Polyetherimide, that can bow radially to achieve a flat nose configuration and withstand compressive and tensile stresses, with a conductive polymer coating and apertures to reduce impedance and enhance signal quality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If a traditional rigid catheter structure is used, then structural integrity is maintained, but the ability to achieve a flat nose profile and sufficient collapse is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter employs a dynamic structure that transitions from a collapsed low-profile configuration for delivery to an expanded configuration for tissue engagement. The expandable basket assembly with flexible polymer circuit strips allows the catheter to dynamically change its shape and structural properties based on operational requirements, resolving the contradiction between maintaining a flat nose profile and ensuring structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter utilizes flexible polymer circuit strips and expandable basket assemblies that can deform and adapt their shape. These flexible components enable the catheter to achieve a flat nose profile when collapsed for delivery while maintaining structural integrity when expanded for tissue contact, directly addressing the shape-strength contradiction.
2Ease of operation
If the catheter is designed to collapse sufficiently for delivery, then navigability is improved, but structural integrity under stress during deployment is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter is divided into multiple segments including the expandable basket assembly with multiple flexible polymer circuit strips. This segmentation allows each segment to independently collapse and expand, improving overall navigability while distributing mechanical stresses across multiple segments during deployment, thereby maintaining structural integrity under stress.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter employs dynamic expansion and collapse mechanisms that allow it to transition between highly compressible states for navigation through vessels and structurally robust states for tissue engagement. The resilient support elements provide dynamic mechanical support that adapts to operational requirements, ensuring reliability under stress during deployment.
3Area of moving object
If the electrode surface area is increased to improve tissue contact, then ablation effectiveness is improved, but impedance increases reducing signal quality
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter employs a conductive polymer coating applied locally to the electrode surfaces. This coating modifies the local electrical properties of the electrode-tissue interface, reducing impedance while maintaining the beneficial large surface area for tissue contact. The local application of the conductive coating allows the system to simultaneously achieve improved ablation effectiveness and enhanced signal quality.
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 solution enables effective tissue contact and stable operation by providing a flat nose for improved electrode placement, maintaining structural integrity under stress, and reducing impedance for enhanced signal detection during cardiac ablation procedures.
Implementation Method 1
the strips being configured to bow radially outward when the pusher is retracted expanding the expandable assembly from a collapsed form to an expanded form
Implementation Method 2
with a conductive polymer coating and apertures to reduce impedance and enhance signal quality
Implementation Method 3
resilient support elements, including Nitinol and Polyetherimide, that can bow radially to achieve a flat nose configuration and withstand compressive and tensile stresses
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed technology includes a catheter comprising an elongated deflectable element extending along a longitudinal axis from a proximal end to a distal end, a position electrode attached to the elongated deflectable element proximate the distal end and configured for impedance-based position tracking, and a covering at least partially enclosing the position electrode. The covering can comprise a plurality of apertures such that a portion of a conductive surface of the position electrode is exposed through each aperture of the plurality of apertures.