LuxCath’s technology has been used for the first time in procedures to treat arrhythmia. According to the company, the ablation procedures demonstrated promising results.
The procedures were performed in 11 arrhythmia patients including atrial fibrillation patients in Prague at Homolka Hospital, led by electrophysiologist Vivek Reddy, director of Arrhythmia Services at The Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai Health System, and Petr Neuzil, director of Cardiology, Homolka Hospital.
LuxCath’s catheter-based technology is designed to assess tissue contact, visualise lesions and detect lesion gaps in real-time. Whilst it is being optimised for the treatment of atrial fibrillation, the technology can be applied in all arrhythmia ablation procedures, according to a LuxCath press release. The company believes that treatment outcomes could be improved by the system, and that it would help catheter ablation procedures to be performed consistently, effectively, quickly and safety, due to the technology’s ability to assess tissue contact.
The LuxCath optical tissue interrogation technology was used in eleven patients suffering from arrhythmias such as atrial flutter, AV nodal re-entrant tachycardia, and atrial fibrillation. The cases demonstrated the utility of the optical tissue interrogation during ablation to reliably assess tissue contact as well as to monitor lesion formation. According to LuxCath, no other technology embedded into an ablation catheter currently provides data or information about the tissue under the surface of the heart being ablated in real time. Other sensors such as temperature or pressure provide an indication of what is happening at the electrode or the electrode-tissue interface while LuxCath’s technology “sees” underneath the surface of the heart into the tissue and provides information that is not currently available. This system aims to provide better tissue contact and lesion formation assessment during ablation to reduce procedure times, fluoroscopy times, arrhythmia recurrences, and costs.
“In all eleven patients, the technology identified tissue contact and was easy to use. In a wide variety of settings, we were able to assess and monitor ablation lesions as they were being created. There were no complications,” says Vivek Reddy. “This is an exciting step forward in the world of ablation. Based on our experience, the technology platform is quite promising.”
