A device user interface for the guided ablative therapy of cardiac arrhythmias

Abstract

Radio Frequency Ablation (RFA) of cardiac arrhythmias involves the guidance of an ablation catheter to the site of the arrhythmia and the administration of a high-intensity radio-frequency current to the tissue. The current technique used to locate the arrhythmic site suffers from a number of drawbacks. Ablation is a trial-and-error procedure and may require many hours, during which the arrhythmia is ongoing. Patients with hemodynamically unstable VT are therefore excluded, as are those with more complex arrhythmias, accounting for an estimated 90% of patients. Furthermore, the technique is only successful in 71% to 76% of the cases to which it is applied. A new algorithm was recently identified that allows the non-invasive and rapid detection of the origin of an arrhythmia from body-surface ECG signals, making the RFA procedure accessible to many patients hitherto excluded. Software implementing this algorithm, and providing a multi-layer graphical user-interface to operate in conjunction with an RFA device, has been designed and implemented. If used in tandem with commercially available ECG and ablation catheter devices, this software will allow cardiologists to deliver ablating currents much more precisely and more quickly than is currently possible, and reach a far wider group of patients.