Apparatus and method for intra-cardiac mapping and ablation

摘要

An intra-cardiac mapping system is based on locating the ports through which blood flows in or out of the heart chambers. For many procedures, such as ablation to cure atrial fibrillation, locating the pulmonary veins and the mitral valve accurately allows to perform a Maze procedure. The location of the ports and valves is based on using the convective cooling effect of the blood flow. The mapping can be performed by a catheter-deployed expandable net or a scanning catheter. The same net or catheter can also perform the ablation procedure.

主权项

1. A method executed by a control computer of a system, the system including an array of elements configured to be introduced into an intra-cardiac cavity, at least one of the elements configured at least to sense temperature, the control computer coupled to the array of elements, and the method comprising:
locating points on a wall of the intra-cardiac cavity based on sensing blood flow with the elements; mapping the wall of the intra-cardiac cavity based on the located points to form a map presented by a display; updating the map while ablating a pattern into the wall of the intra-cardiac cavity with at least some of the elements; and monitoring, with at least one of the at least one of the elements, temperature during each of the locating and the ablating, wherein each of the elements is responsive to convective heat transfer by the blood flow, and wherein the method further comprises providing a visual representation of one or more regions of the wall of the intra-cardiac cavity concurrently with each of one or more ports in a surface of the wall of the intra-cardiac cavity with respect to the one or more regions based at least on the sensed blood flow.