Piezoelectric Ultrasound Transducers for Atrial Fibrillation Treatment

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia or rhythm abnormality. AF is an irregular and often rapid heart rate that may cause symptoms like heart palpitations, fatigue, and shortness of breath. Currently, more than 46 million patients worldwide suffer from this potentially fatal disease. AF occurs when the upper chambers of the heart (atria) beat rapidly and irregularly (fibrillate). This can cause blood to pool and form clots in an area of the heart called the left atrial appendage (LAA). When a blood clot escapes from the LAA and travels to another part of the body, it can cause a stroke. These who have AF are 5 times more likely to suffer a stroke than someone with a regular heartbeat. Fortunately, AF may be treated with medication, cardioversion or a catheter ablation procedure. However, despite the large number of advances in the field over the past two decades, AF remains a substantial cause of mortality and morbidity.

Healium Medical has now developed a non-contact guided ablation system for the treatment of this disease. The company develops transcatheter ultrasound technology enabling rapid, non-contact circumferential pulmonary vein isolation with real-time lesion monitoring. The goal is to improve procedure efficacy, simplify procedure flow, and shorten procedure time. Healium Medical’s solution addresses the key limitations of the technology currently used in AF ablation by allowing no-tissue contact and gap-free ablation with real-time lesion quality assessment. The Contactless Guided Ablation technology leverages ultrasound energy to deliver and monitor the precise energy needed for safe and rapid lesion formation around the pulmonary veins. For that purpose, the piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers from PI Ceramic are used.