PATENTS
Apparatus For Catheter Guidance Control And Imaging
Patent Number: EP 1 521 555 B1
Date Filed: August 26, 2009
Country Filed In: Europe
Product Application: CGCI
Description:
A system whereby a magnetic tip is attached to a surgical tool is detected, displayed, and influenced positionally so as to allow diagnostic and therapeutic procedures to be performed rapidly, accurately, simply and intuitively as described. The tools that can be so equipped include catheters, guidewires and secondary tools such as lasers and balloons, in addition biopsy needles, endoscopy probes and similar devices. The magnetic tip allows the position and orientation of the tip to be determined without the use of x-rays by analyzing a magnetic field. The magnetic tip further allows the tool tip to be pulled, pushed, turned, and forcefully held in the desired position by applying an appropriate magnetic field external to the patient’s body. A Virtual Tip serves a as an operator control. Movement of the operator control produces corresponding movement of the magnetic tip inside the patient’s body. Additionally the control provides tactile feedback to the operator’s hand in the appropriate axis or axes if the magnetic tip encounters an obstacle. The output of the control combined with the magnetic tip position and orientation feedback allows a servo system to control the external magnetic field by pulse width modulating the positioning electromagnet. Data concerning the dynamic position of the moving body part such as a beating heart offsets the servo systems response in such a way that the magnetic tip, and hence the secondary tool is caused to move in unison with the moving body part. The tip position and information and the dynamic body part information are also utilized to provide a display that allows three-dimensional viewing of the magnetic tip position and orientation relative to the body part.
Field of Use: The Catheter Guidance Control and Imaging (CGCI) system was created to provide physicians the ability to guide a catheter through a patient's body using a robotically-controlled magnetic guidance system. Such a system provides the physician unprecedented accuracy in being able to navigate within the dynamic environment of the patient, create a detailed 3-D mapping, and perform a variety of catheter-based operations with precision control and an ability to return to target at the push of a button. Initial applications for the technology were for the field of Electrophysiology and specifically for the ablation of the heart to treat patients with AFib.