I-Corps: Single Chip Intravascular and Intracardiac Ultrasound Imaging Systems

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Coronary heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the US and some 60M people in the US alone have some form of heart disease. Therefore, a great need exists for the advancement of devices and procedures to diagnose, treat, and correct a wide variety of forms of heart disease. Procedures such as radio frequency (RF) ablation to correct arrhythmias, reopening of totally blocked arteries and trans-catheter valve replacement are prolonged and sometimes not successfully performed due to the difficulties in the guidance of catheter based diagnostic and therapeutic devices within the cardiovascular system. This I-Corps team has developed a miniature forward looking 3-D ultrasound imaging system which essentially provides a flashlight for cardiologist or surgeons to navigate through the vascular system and within the heart. The proposed technology is developed to address the unmet need in image guidance for complex interventional heart procedures. The device that invented provides meaningful, real-time anatomical information occurring within the structures of the heart, as well as coronary and peripheral veins and arteries in a three dimensional view. The device should allow a less practiced clinician the ability to achieve the same results as a very skilled surgeon in less time and with similar accuracy. It should also allow certain catheter based minimally invasive procedures such as recanalization of blocked arteries which were declined because of the limitations of present devices, to now be done and avoid the open heart surgery. In the long term, the technology has the potential to displace the current catheter based ultrasound imaging systems completely by providing equal or better performance at reduced cost since it will dramatically reduce the assembly and catheter cabling which are the main cost drivers.