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Session: Poster session I
Session starts: Thursday 24 January, 15:00

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Mehdi Soozande (Erasmus MC)
Hendrik J. Vos (Erasmus MC)
Johan G. Bosch (Erasmus MC)
Nico de Jong (Erasmus MC)

Abstract:
The initial application of IntraCardiac Echography (ICE) is in electrophysiology, to guide and monitor catheter ablations for atrial fibrillation. A 3-D ICE could provide a real-time ultrasound imaging to guide the transseptal puncture and ablation device navigation in a 3-D rendered environment of the left atrium and pulmonary veins. In addition, catheter-based interventions such as closure of atrial septal defects, mitral valve therapies, occlusion of the left atrial appendage, and transcatheter aortic valve replacement also could be performed using 3-D ICE guidance. Electrophysiologists are interested in determining the site of origin or specific underlying mechanism of atrial arrhythmias, such as macro-reentrant atrial flutter (AFL) and focal atrial tachycardia for RF-ablation treatment. Cardiac electrical activity maps are conventionally used to determine the ablation sites and also evaluate the treatment. This electrical activity causes a transient contraction in myocytes which propagates through the atrial wall. Recent studies demonstrated a high correlation between the cardiac electrical activity and its consequent Electromechanical Wave (EW) in both healthy and arithmetic cases. Electromechanical waves are transient phenomena and propagate with a velocity of approximately 1m/s. Therefore, a high frame rate imaging (>1000Hz) is required to capture them accurately. A high frame rate 3-D ICE could offer a 3-D map of electromechanical wave front propagating through an atrial wall. However, realizing a catheter based transducer for such a high frame rate imaging introduces several challenges including a high channel count, low lateral resolution in limited direction, low SNR, and limited power dissipation. In this project, we are trying to address these challenges. A matrix array with a maximum size of 3mm in the limited direction will be mounted on top of an ASIC and encapsulated in a 10Fr intracardiac catheter. A low number of diverging waves should be used to achieve a high volume rate over a large field of view. we are working on approaches to reduce the channel count in transmit and receive, while maintaining a good lateral imaging resolution and SNR. This involves both electronics architecture, transmission / reception schemes and signal processing.