Determine ventricular far field with catheter
The use of catheters with electrodes is firmly established in medicine. Ablation catheters are used to diagnose and treat cardiac arrhythmias. In a special procedure, electrograms of the heart muscle, especially the atrium, are recorded with them to guide treatment.
State of the art
However, the electrograms recorded by the electrodes are susceptible to interference. Signals originating from the atrium can so far only be inadequately evaluated because the electrodes of the ablation catheters automatically record the unwanted, significantly stronger signals from the heart chambers (ventricles). These are reflected in the electrogram as an interference factor, the so-called ventricular far field (VFF). In clinical use, physicians make do by measuring and subtracting two adjacent electrode signals to remove the interfering factor. However, this bipolar measurement is still not precise enough: On the one hand, there is a dependency between the measuring electrodes and the direction of the excitation propagation, and on the other hand, a clear measurement point assignment is not possible.
Technology
Researchers at KIT's Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBT) have succeeded in measuring the ventricular far field and removing it from the signal in real time. The research team has developed an algorithm for the diagnostically more valuable unipolar electrograms, in which they use the data obtained during shape detection of the atrium to create a temporal-spatial distribution of the VFF. This data is used as prior knowledge to predict the VFF fraction for each position of the catheter and to suppress the unwanted disturbances.
Advantages
In addition to the spatially clear assignment, this measurement method also offers VFF prediction in real time. Furthermore, the diagnostic potential of the unipolar signals is harnessed and a more precise determination of the tissue to be ablated is made possible. In sum, the procedure leads to a faster and more precise treatment of cardiac arrhythmias and promises a higher chance of successful treatment.
Options for companies
The use of unipolar measurements in the atrium has been extensively tested on retrospective data and successfully applied to measurement data in the clinical environment. KIT is looking for partners to implement the software, which is integrated into the medical technology systems as part of the signal processing.
Your contact person for this offer
Innovation Manager New Materials, Climate and Environment Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Innovation and Relations Management (IRM) Phone: +49 721 608-26107
Email: jan-niklas.bloetz@kit.edu