Steerable Imaging Catheter for Cardiac Implant Placement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical devices for treating heart valve incompetency face challenges in visualization and accurate placement of implantable devices due to skewed or blocked views during minimally-invasive procedures, particularly when delivering and deploying devices like annuloplasty devices to the mitral valve, which affects the effectiveness of blood flow and cardiac function.
Innovation Solution
An implant system that includes a flexible elongate member with imaging elements positioned on its distal end, allowing for movement and adjustment relative to the implantable device and site, enabling clearer imaging and precise placement through a common access lumen, utilizing a steerable and deflectable mechanism to maintain optimal visualization and imaging during deployment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If minimally-invasive delivery methods are used to implant cardiac devices, then patient trauma is reduced, but visualization and imaging of the implant site become skewed or blocked
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the delivery catheter and imaging catheter into a single integrated delivery system that shares a common access lumen. The imaging elements are positioned on the delivery catheter itself, allowing simultaneous delivery and real-time imaging without requiring separate access pathways, thus maintaining minimally-invasive benefits while improving visualization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces imaging elements (such as ultrasound transducers or optical sensors) as intermediaries that can penetrate through the delivery system to provide direct visualization of the implant site. These imaging elements act as mediators between the operator and the target anatomy, enabling clear imaging through the minimally-invasive access pathway without requiring direct line-of-sight visualization.
2Adaptability or versatility
If components of the delivery system are positioned at different angles with respect to the implant site, then flexibility in delivery is improved, but maintaining a centered and focused view of the device becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs dynamically adjustable imaging elements that can rotate, tilt, or translate relative to the delivery catheter axis. This dynamic positioning capability allows the imaging elements to maintain optimal alignment with the implant site regardless of the delivery catheter's angular orientation, preserving both delivery flexibility and imaging accuracy throughout the implantation procedure.
Solution Approach 2:
The imaging system is designed with multi-functional capabilities that allow it to adapt to various delivery angles and orientations. The imaging elements can perform multiple functions including forward imaging, lateral imaging, and en face visualization, enabling accurate imaging regardless of the specific angular configuration of the delivery system relative to the implant site.
3Device complexity
If imaging elements are fixed on the delivery system, then device complexity is reduced, but the ability to maintain optimal imaging position relative to the implant site is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the imaging system into multiple independently controllable imaging elements positioned at different locations and orientations on the delivery catheter. This segmentation allows each imaging element to be independently adjusted to optimize its viewing angle, providing comprehensive visualization capabilities while maintaining a manageable overall system structure through modular design.
Data Source
AI summary
An implantable device delivered and deployed with a visualization and/or imaging system. An imaging element is positioned on a distal end of a flexible elongate member of the visualization/imaging system. The distal end with the imaging element is positioned adjacent the implant and/or the implant site, and moved relative to the longitudinal axis of the flexible elongate member to adjust the viewing field of the imaging device.