SBIR Phase I: The Development of Signal Sensing, Processing and Mapping Technology to Enable Curative, Patient-Specific Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the development of a diagnostic technology capable of identifying the drivers of Atrial Fibrillation (AF), which promises to enable new therapeutic options for a large population of under-served patients. AF is the most common and complex cardiac arrythmia. AF patients are at severe risk of complications including stroke, heart attack and death. AF patients have limited treatment options and medications are only effective approximately half of the time. Ablation is highly effective at treating other arrythmias, but current diagnostic mapping technologies are limited in the ability to provide customized treatment for chronic AF. This project will test concepts of a new device to measure AF.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will validate the ability of a novel micro-electrode array to accurately measure AF in an animal. This is important because conventional intra-cardiac catheters lack the spatial resolution to adequately resolve discrete, closely spaced activations. Accurate resolution of cardiac tissue activations is essential to deduce the properties of diseased tissue and to plan effective patient-specific ablation therapy. Optical mapping is a gold standard for measuring electrical activation of tissue and therefore provides a trusted platform for comparative validation. The expected results are to observe complex activation patterns on an ovine heart model using the novel micro-electrode array, and for those electrical patterns to be corroborated by optical mapping data.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.