Open Basket Catheter with Dynamic Spline Adjustment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing catheters for electro-anatomic mapping of the heart, particularly for atrial fibrillation, face limitations such as inadequate contact with the atrial surface, restricted access to certain anatomical regions, and reduced spatial resolution due to electrode distribution and catheter design.
Innovation Solution
An open basket catheter design featuring at least eight splines, each with multiple evenly distributed electrodes, allowing for adjustable positions from fully open to fully closed states, and being steerable to optimize electrode coverage and resolution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If a large basket catheter is used for global atrial mapping, then anatomical coverage is improved, but access to atrial appendages and pulmonary vein junctions is restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter employs dynamic size adjustment capability, allowing it to transition between a large expanded configuration for global atrial mapping and a compressed delivery configuration for accessing confined anatomical regions such as atrial appendages and pulmonary vein junctions. This dynamic transformation resolves the contradiction by enabling the catheter to adapt its size to different procedural requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The basket catheter is divided into multiple adjustable segments or struts that can be independently positioned and sized. This segmentation allows the catheter to be expanded to cover the entire atrial surface for global mapping while also enabling selective compression to navigate into smaller anatomical compartments, thus achieving both broad coverage and localized access.
2Area of stationary object
If electrodes are distributed to cover the entire atrial surface, then measurement coverage is improved, but spatial resolution is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter enables dynamic reconfiguration of electrode spacing by adjusting the basket expansion ratio. When expanded, electrodes cover the entire atrial surface for comprehensive mapping. When compressed or partially expanded, the same electrodes are spaced more closely together, providing enhanced spatial resolution for detailed local analysis without requiring a different catheter.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter design allows different regions of the electrode array to be positioned at different distances from the atrial wall through selective expansion. This creates local variations in electrode density and measurement quality, enabling high-resolution measurements in specific regions of interest while maintaining broad overall coverage with the full electrode array.
3Measurement precision
If contact mapping is used to improve measurement accuracy, then electrode contact with chamber wall is improved, but maneuverability and positioning of other devices is restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter provides dynamic control over electrode-chamber wall contact through adjustable expansion. The operator can expand the basket to achieve contact mapping for accurate measurements in specific regions, then compress the basket to improve maneuverability and create space for positioning other devices such as ablation catheters, thus resolving the contradiction between contact quality and procedural flexibility.
Data Source
AI summary
An open catheter has at least eight splines making up a basket. Each of the splines includes at least six electrodes. An arm is provided connected to and capable of moving the splines from a closed position to an open position, and multiple positions therebetween.