Unmet Need
Ventricular tachycardia (VT) is a life-threatening arrhythmia that contributes significantly to the mortality and morbidity of cardiovascular patients. Catheter ablation of VTs can potentially be curative, but recurrence rates remain unacceptably high. Major technological advancements in VT ablation are often highly invasive, time-consuming, and do not necessarily provide optimal ablation targets. Thus, there is a need for novel, non-invasive approaches to improve VT ablation precision.
Technology Overview
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a personalized image-based computational heart modeling (digital hearts) approach for VT ablation that incorporates the intramyocardial fat distribution, a newly-recognized arrhythmogenic substrate for VT. This non-invasive, computationally-driven technology reconstructs digital hearts with the patient-specific fat distribution from pre-procedural computed tomographic (CT) images. Using these digital hearts, simulations are executed to predict VTs sustained in the digital-heart fat-based substrate. From these predicted VTs, optimal ablation targets that terminate the VTs in the digital heart are determined, and these targets can be readily exported to electroanatomic mapping navigation systems to guide VT ablation procedures. Because high quality CT’s can be routinely acquired for VT ablation patients, this technology can be readily integrated into contemporary clinical workflows.
Stage of Development
Currently, the design has been validated against retrospective patient data; however, the invention requires additional development before it can see clinical use.
Publication
Sung, E., Prakosa, A., Zhou, S. et al. Fat infiltration in the infarcted heart as a paradigm for ventricular arrhythmias. Nat Cardiovasc Res 1, 933–945 (2022).
