Heart Shape Mapping

Magnetic Positional Tracking System for Catheter Tracking During Heart Surgery

Primary Investigator: Prof. Byunghoo Jung

Research Assistants: Rubing Jin and Mohit Singh

[Background]

• Cardiovascular Diseases are leading cause of death globally (30% of all deaths!).*

• 50% of these deaths are due to sudden cardiac arrests.

• 80% of the sudden cardiac arrests are due to irregular beating of the heart (arrhythmia).

• Treatment of arrhythmia often requires surgery (catheter ablation) to the relevant blood vessels/tissues.

• Catheter ablation frequently used for arrhythmia based surgeries

• During an operation, surgeon cannot easily tell where the catheter is.

  • Imaging during surgery: X-ray, echocardiography

  • Invasive and requires contrast agents.

[Goal]

Develop a system that can track the position and orientation of a catheter at real time with a sub-mm level accuracy during heart surgery