Method for ablating body tissue
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for creating a lesion in cardiac tissue, the method comprising:
- positioning at a first location within a heart of a patient, an ultrasound transducer coupled to a distal portion of a catheter;
sweeping the ultrasound transducer along a first ablation path;
sensing a distance between the ultrasound transducer and the cardiac tissue,wherein sensing occurs while the ultrasound transducer is sweeping along the first ablation path, andwherein sensing generates an indicator signal;
checking the indicator signal to ensure that the first ablation path will result in a continuous transmural lesion; and
ablating the cardiac tissue with a beam of energy from the ultrasound transducer along the first ablation path to form the lesion,wherein the ablation depth is dynamically controlled by varying a sweep rate of the ultrasound transducer along the first ablation path during ablation.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A cardiac ablation method including the following steps: inserting a treatment catheter into an atrium of a heart, the treatment catheter including an ultrasound emitter; positioning the ultrasound emitter to face heart tissue within the left atrium outside of a pulmonary vein; emitting ultrasound energy from the ultrasound emitter while rotating the ultrasound emitter about a rotation axis; and ablating heart tissue with the ultrasound energy to form a lesion outside of a pulmonary vein.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method for creating a lesion in cardiac tissue, the method comprising:
-
positioning at a first location within a heart of a patient, an ultrasound transducer coupled to a distal portion of a catheter; sweeping the ultrasound transducer along a first ablation path; sensing a distance between the ultrasound transducer and the cardiac tissue, wherein sensing occurs while the ultrasound transducer is sweeping along the first ablation path, and wherein sensing generates an indicator signal; checking the indicator signal to ensure that the first ablation path will result in a continuous transmural lesion; and ablating the cardiac tissue with a beam of energy from the ultrasound transducer along the first ablation path to form the lesion, wherein the ablation depth is dynamically controlled by varying a sweep rate of the ultrasound transducer along the first ablation path during ablation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification