Apparatus and method for intrabody mapping
First Claim
1. A method for ablating a portion of an organ or bodily structure of a patient, which comprises the steps of:
- (a) advancing one or more catheters to sites adjacent to or within an organ or bodily structure, at least one of said catheters having ablation ability;
(b) sensing the location of each catheter'"'"'s distal tip using a non-ionizing field;
(c) at the distal tip of one or more catheters sensing local information of the organ or structure;
(d) processing the sensed information from steps (b) and (c) to create one or more data points;
(e) transmitting said one or more data points to a receiving means; and
(f) ablating a portion of the organ or structure.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
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.
814 Citations
29 Claims
-
1. A method for ablating a portion of an organ or bodily structure of a patient, which comprises the steps of:
-
(a) advancing one or more catheters to sites adjacent to or within an organ or bodily structure, at least one of said catheters having ablation ability; (b) sensing the location of each catheter'"'"'s distal tip using a non-ionizing field; (c) at the distal tip of one or more catheters sensing local information of the organ or structure; (d) processing the sensed information from steps (b) and (c) to create one or more data points; (e) transmitting said one or more data points to a receiving means; and (f) ablating a portion of the organ or structure. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
-
-
4. A method for treating cardiac arrhythmias, which comprises the steps of:
-
(a) advancing one or more reference catheters and one or more mapping/ablation catheters, all of which have distal tips, to sites within a patient'"'"'s heart; (b) sensing the location of each catheter distal tip using a non-ionizing field; (c) at the distal tip of the mapping/ablation catheter sensing information concerning the heart'"'"'s electrical activity; (d) processing the information sensed in steps (b) and (c) to create one or more data points; (e) transmitting said one or more data points to a receiving means; and (f) ablating a portion of the inner surface of the ventricle. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6)
-
- 7. A method of prognosing the likelihood of successful treatment of cardiac arrhythmia at a specific site in a patient'"'"'s heart, said method comprising calculating the similarity of a patient'"'"'s body electrogram morphology during arrhythmia to the patient'"'"'s body surface electrogram during pacing in a plurality of sites on the endocardium of the patient'"'"'s heart.
-
11. A method for intrabody mapping, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) inserting a probe into the body of a subject; (b) applying a non-ionizing electromagnetic field to the body, so that energy from the field impinges on the probe; (c) finding the position of the probe by sensing the field at the probe; (d) receiving a signal responsive to electrophysiological activity in the body at the probe; and (e) processing the signal together with the position found in step (c) to determine a localized characteristic of the electrophysiological activity. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. Apparatus for intrabody mapping, comprising:
-
a probe, having a distal end which is inserted into the heart of a subject and positioned at each of a plurality of sites therein, the probe including one or more electrodes adjacent the distal end, for use in generating signals responsive to a local physiological characteristic; a position sensor, which generates position signals responsive to the position of the probe; and a signal processor, which receives and processes the position signals and the signals responsive to the physiological characteristic, to create sufficient data points for a map representative of the characteristic. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
-
Specification