Electrophysiological Mapping Using Omnipolar Electrogram Integration

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current electrophysiological mapping techniques, particularly in cardiac diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, face challenges in accurately visualizing and determining cardiac activation patterns, especially in high-resolution directional mapping, which is crucial for understanding arrhythmia propagation and treatment strategies.

Innovation Solution

The method involves an electroanatomical mapping system that processes electrophysiological data from a multi-electrode catheter to identify the integral of an omnipolar electrogram with the best morphological match to a unipolar electrogram, defining an activation direction and computing conduction velocity magnitude for each clique of electrodes, thereby generating a cardiac activation map.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If high-density grid catheters with multiple electrodes are used to improve mapping resolution, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvemapping resolutionVSAvoiddevice complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The catheter electrodes are organized into multiple cliques (groups of electrodes), where each clique is independently processed to determine activation direction and conduction velocity. This segmentation allows the complex multi-electrode system to be broken down into manageable units, improving measurement precision through localized analysis while managing device complexity through modular processing.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces omnipolar electrograms, which represent a new dimension in electrogram analysis by integrating signals from multiple electrodes in a clique to create a virtual electrode with enhanced directional information. This dimensional enhancement improves mapping resolution by providing activation direction and conduction velocity data without requiring additional physical electrodes, thus managing device complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

2Measurement precision

If omnipolar electrograms are used to determine activation direction and conduction velocity, then measurement precision is improved, but processing complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveactivation direction accuracyVSAvoidprocessing complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary processing by integrating electrogram signals from multiple electrodes within each clique to generate omnipolar electrograms before determining activation direction and conduction velocity. This preliminary action consolidates the raw multi-electrode data into a simplified omnipolar representation, improving measurement precision while reducing the complexity of subsequent analysis by working with pre-processed omnipolar signals rather than raw multi-electrode data.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP4117527B1System and method for mapping electrophysiological activation
Publication Date: 2023.12.13 ST JUDE MEDICAL CARDILOGY DIV INC
  • EP4117527B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4117527B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4117527B1 patent drawingFigure 3A~3B

AI summary

Electrical activation of tissue can be mapped from using electrophysiological data from a plurality of electrodes carried by a high density grid catheter. Each clique of three or more electrodes will define a pair of orthogonal bipoles as well as several unipoles. An electroanatomical mapping system can analyze the electrophysiological data such that, for each clique, an integral of an omnipolar electrogram the best morphologically matches a representative (e.g., average) unipolar electrogram for the clique is identified. The orientation of the best-fit omnipole is then defined as the activation direction for the clique. The conduction velocity magnitude can also be computed as a ratio of an amplitude of the unipolar electrogram for the clique to an amplitude of the integral of the omnipolar electrogram for the clique along the activation direction. The resulting activation map can also be output graphically.