Pulmonary Vein Gap Mapping for Complete Ablation Isolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for pulmonary vein isolation in treating cardiac arrhythmias, such as those using contact force sensors and location sensors, often fail to address residual conduction gaps, leading to incomplete ablation and potential recurrence of arrhythmias.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that utilize a 3-dimensional coordinate system to project ablation sites, identify gaps through shortest paths and ellipses, and employ a tree graph to model heart tissue for precise ablation, ensuring complete isolation by reporting and closing gaps.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If contact force sensors and location sensors are used for pulmonary vein isolation, then ablation positioning accuracy is improved, but residual conduction gaps remain due to incomplete detection of gap locations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms 3D ablation site locations into 2D projections on a simulation plane, enabling gap detection through 2D path analysis. This dimensional reduction allows for systematic identification of conduction gaps that would be difficult to detect in 3D space, thereby improving isolation completeness while maintaining positioning accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback by identifying and reporting gap locations based on the relationship between projected ablation sites and simulated paths. This feedback mechanism allows operators to target and close residual gaps, improving the reliability of pulmonary vein isolation
2Reliability
If multiple ablation sites are created to ensure complete isolation, then isolation reliability is improved, but procedure time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary gap identification by projecting ablation sites and analyzing 2D paths before completing ablation. This allows operators to plan ablation sites more efficiently, ensuring complete isolation while minimizing the number of ablation applications needed, thereby reducing procedure time
Solution Approach 2:
The system automatically identifies gap locations and reports them to operators, eliminating the need for manual inspection and reducing the time required to ensure complete isolation. The automated gap detection serves the isolation completeness requirement without proportionally increasing procedure duration
Data Source
AI summary
A gap between a plurality of ablation sites in a heart that hinders electrical propagation therethrough is found by projecting the locations of the sites in a 3-dimensional coordinate system onto a simulation plane, identifying a set of shortest 3-dimensional paths that correspond to 2-dimensional connections between pairs of the projected locations of the sites, and reporting a gap as a longest one of the set.