Method and apparatus for studying cardiac arrhythmias
First Claim
1. A method for studying cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises the steps of:
- (a) positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart;
(b) sensing location information at the site;
(c) sensing body surface ECG while pacing from that site;
(d) processing sensed and derived information from steps (b) and (c) to create one or more date points; and
(e) repeating steps (a), (b), (c), and (d) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a map.
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Abstract
This invention concerns an apparatus and method for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. More particularly, this invention is directed to a method for ablating a portion of an organ or bodily structure of a patient, which comprises obtaining a perspective image of the organ or structure to be mapped; advancing one or more catheters having distal tips to sites adjacent to or within the organ or structure, at least one of the catheters having ablation ability; sensing the location of each catheter'"'"'s distal tip using a non-ionizing field; at the distal tip of one or more catheters, sensing local information of the organ or structure; processing the sensed information to create one or more data points; superimposing the one or more data points on the perspective image of the organ or structure; and ablating a portion of the organ or structure.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method for studying cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises the steps of:
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(a) positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) sensing location information at the site; (c) sensing body surface ECG while pacing from that site; (d) processing sensed and derived information from steps (b) and (c) to create one or more date points; and (e) repeating steps (a), (b), (c), and (d) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a map. - View Dependent Claims (8)
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2. A method for studying cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises the steps of:
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(a) positioning the distal tip of each or one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) sensing location information at the site; (c) sensing body surface ECG while pacing from that site; (d) processing sensed and derived information from steps (b) and (c) to create one or more data points; (e) repeating steps (a), (b), (c), and (d) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a map; and (f) transmitting the map to a receiving means.
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3. A method for treating cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises the steps of:
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(a) positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) sensing location information at the site; (c) sensing body surface ECG while pacing from that site; (d) processing sensed and derived information from steps (b) and (c) to create one or more data points; (e) repeating steps (a), (b), (c), and (d) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a map; and (f) ablating a portion of the heart.
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4. A method for treating cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises the steps of:
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(a) positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) sensing location information at the site; (c) sensing body surface ECG while pacing from that site; (d) processing sensed and derived information from steps (b) and (c) to create one or more data points; (e) repeating steps (a), (b), (c), and (d) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a map; (f) transmitting the map to a receiving means; and (g) ablating a portion of the heart.
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5. A method for studying cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises the steps of:
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(a) positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) sensing location information at the site; (c) pacing from that site; (d) sensing body surface ECG; (e) comparing body surface ECG measured at step (d) to body surface ECG morphology during reference arrhythmia; (f) processing sensed and derived information from steps (b) and (e) to create one or more data points; and (g) repeating steps (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a correlation map.
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6. A method for studying cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises the steps of:
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(a) positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) sensing location information at the site; (c) pacing from that site; (d) sensing body surface ECG; (e) comparing body surface ECG measured at step (d) to body surface ECG morphology during reference arrhythmia; (f) processing sensed and derived information from steps (b) and (e) to create one or more data points; (g) repeating steps (a), (b), (c) , (d), and (e) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a correlation map; and (h) transmitting the correlation map of step (g) to a receiving means.
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7. A method for treating cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises the steps of:
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(a) positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) sensing location information at the site; (c) pacing from that site; (d) sensing body surface ECG; (e) comparing body surface ECG measured at step (d) to body surface ECG morphology during reference arrhythmia; (f) processing sensed and derived information from steps (b) and (e) to create one or more data points; (g) repeating steps (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a correlation map; and (h) ablating a portion of the heart.
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9. An apparatus for studying cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises:
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(a) means for positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) means for sensing location information at the site; (c) means for sensing body surface ECG while pacing from that site; (d) means for processing sensed and derived information from means (b) and (c) to create one or more data points; and (e) means for repeating the functions of means (a), (b), (c), and (d) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a map.
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10. An apparatus for studying cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises:
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(a) means for positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) means for sensing location information at the site; (c) means for sensing body surface ECG while pacing from that site; (d) means for processing sensed and derived information from means (b) and (c) to create one or more data points; (e) means for repeating the functions of means (a), (b), (c), and (d) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a map; and (f) means for transmitting the map to a receiving means.
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11. An apparatus for treating cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises:
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(a) means for positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) means for sensing location information at the site; (c) means for sensing body surface ECG while pacing from that site; (d) means for processing sensed and derived information from means (b) and (c) to create one or more data points; (e) means for repeating the functions of means (a), (b), (c), and (d) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a map; and (f) means for ablating a portion of the heart.
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12. An apparatus for treating cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises:
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(a) means for positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) means for sensing location information at the site; (c) means for sensing body surface ECG while pacing from that site; (d) means for processing sensed and derived information from means (b) and (c) to create one or more data points; (e) means for repeating the functions of means (a), (b), (c), and (d) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a map; (f) means for transmitting the map to a receiving means; and (g) means for ablating a portion of the heart.
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13. An apparatus for studying cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises:
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(a) means for positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) means for sensing location information at the site; (c) means for pacing from that site; (d) means for sensing body surface ECG; (e) means for comparing body surface ECG measured by means (d) to body surface ECG morphology during reference arrhythmia; (f) means for processing sensed and derived information from means (b) and (e) to create one or more data points; and (g) means for repeating the functions of means (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a correlation map.
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14. An apparatus for studying cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises:
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(a) means for positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) means for sensing location information at the site; (c) means for pacing from that site; (d) means for sensing body surface ECG; (e) means for comparing body surface ECG measured by means (d) to body surface ECG morphology during reference arrhythmia; (f) means for processing sensed and derived information from means (b) and (e) to create one or more data points; (g) means for repeating the functions of means (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a correlation map; and (h) means for transmitting the correlation map to a receiving means.
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15. An apparatus for treating cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises:
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(a) means for positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) means for sensing location information at the site; (c) means for pacing from that site; (d) means for sensing body surface ECG; (e) means for comparing body surface ECG measured by means (d) to body surface ECG morphology during reference arrhythmia; (f) means for processing sensed and derived information from means (b) and (e) to create one or more data points; (g) means for repeating the functions of means (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a correlation map; and (h) means for ablating a portion of the heart.
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16. An apparatus for guiding operator-performed intrabody mapping, which comprises:
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(a) means for positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) means for sensing location information at the site; (c) means for sensing local information; (d) means for processing sensed and derived information from means (b) and (c) to create one or more data points; (e) means for repeating the functions of means (a), (b), (c), and (d) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a map; (f) means for calculating gradients of mapped local information; and (g) means for processing information from means (f) to indicate the next site for acquisition of local information.
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17. An apparatus for guiding operator-performed intrabody mapping, which comprises:
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(a) means for positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) means for sensing location information at the site; (c) means for repeating the function of means (a) and (b) one or more times to create sufficient data points for creating an image of the mapped surface; (d) means for calculating the spatial distribution of the density information; and (e) means for processing information from means (d) to indicate the next site for acquisition.
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18. An apparatus for guiding operator-performed intrabody mapping, which comprises:
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(a) means for positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) means for sensing location information at the site; (c) means for repeating the function means (a) and (b) one or more times to create sufficient data points for creating an image of the mapped surface; (d) means for calculating the spatial distribution of the density information; (e) means for processing information from means (d) to indicate the next site for acquisition; and (f) means for superpositioning the suggested next site for acquisition determined by means (e) on the image generated by means (c).
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19. A method for prognosing the likelihood of successful treatment of cardiac arrhythmias of a patient, comprising:
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(a) positioning the distal tip of each of one or more catheters at a site adjacent to or within the heart; (b) sensing location information at the site; (c) sensing electrical information; (d) processing sensed information from steps (b) and (c) to create one or more data points; (e) repeating steps (a), (b), (c), and (d) one or more times to create sufficient data points for a map; and (f) evaluating the map to prognose the likelihood of successful treatment. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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23. A method for automatic guidance of an operator-performed mapping procedure, said method comprising the steps of:
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(a) recording the values of a mapped variable at a plurality of locations to prepare a map; and (b) calculating spatial gradients of the mapped variables to identify the optimal site for further acquisition of information.
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24. An apparatus for automatic guidance of an operator-performed mapping procedure, comprising:
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(a) means for recording the values of a mapped variable at a plurality of locations to prepare a map; and (b) means for calculating spatial gradients of the mapped variables to identify the optimal site for further acquisition of information.
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Specification