Catheter systems and methods are disclosed. An exemplary catheter includes an outer tubing housing and an inner fluid delivery tubing, the inner fluid delivery tubing having at least one fluid delivery port. The catheter also includes a deployment member movable axially within the inner fluid delivery tubing. A plurality of splines are each connected at a proximal end to the outer tubing and at a distal end to deployment member. A seal is provided between the outer tubing and the inner fluid delivery tubing. A gasket is provided between the deployment member and the inner fluid delivery tubing. Both the seal and the gasket are configured to prevent blood or other fluid from ingressing into the outer tubing.

A distal end portion of an elongate shaft member of a catheter may be inserted into a liquid within a vessel. While the distal end portion of the elongate shaft member is inserted in the liquid in the vessel, a manipulable portion of the catheter may be manipulated within the liquid to remove an undesired fluid therefrom. The liquid may be pressurized to cause the liquid to flow into a lumen of the elongate shaft member from a distal end of the elongate shaft member at least toward a proximal end of the elongate shaft member to facilitate flushing of the undesired fluid from the lumen. The distal end portion of the elongate shaft member of the catheter may be inserted into the liquid within the vessel while at least the elongate shaft member is in a substantially horizontal orientation.

A system and method are provided for a navigational feedback to a catheter during an arrhythmia ablation procedure. A set of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals of a patient's arrhythmia is recorded that correspond to an unknown target location to be ablated by the catheter. During the ablation procedure, pacing locations and ECG signals corresponding to the pacing locations are collected to derive a mathematical operator that maps a 12-dimensional displacement vector in the ECG space to a 3-dimensional (3D) vector in a physical space. This 3D vector corresponds to a direction and a distance that the catheter needs to be moved in order to reach the target location of the arrhythmia.

A surgical instrument connectable to a surgical energy module that is configured to provide a first drive signal at a first frequency range for driving a first energy modality and a second drive signal at a second frequency range for driving a second energy modality is provided. The surgical instrument can comprise a surgical instrument component configured to receive power from a direct current (DC) power source, an end effector, and a circuit. The circuit can be configured to convert the first electrical signal to a DC voltage, apply the DC voltage to the surgical instrument component, and deliver the second energy modality to the end effector according to the second drive signal. Alternatively, the circuit can be disposed within a cable assembly configured to connect the surgical instrument to the surgical energy module.

The present invention provides a cardiac ablation system including a spline assembly and a catheter wire. The spline assembly is provided with a plurality of electrodes and a plurality of first conductive layers encapsulated therein. A total number of the plurality of first conductive layers is corresponding to a total number of the plurality of electrodes. Each of the plurality of first conductive layers is electrically connected to each of the plurality of electrodes. The spline assembly is configured to transform into various configurations along a radial direction. A distal end of the catheter wire is connected to a proximal end of the spline assembly. The catheter wire includes a plurality of second conductive layers encapsulated therein. A total number of the plurality of second conductive layers is corresponding to the total number of the plurality of first conductive layers.

An adapter can include circuitry that can toggle between a mapping state and an ablation state. In the mapping state the circuitry can connect the catheter to a mapping system so that the catheter can measure electrical signals from multiple independent electrodes on an end effector of the catheter. In the ablation state the circuitry can connect the catheter to an ablation generator so that the catheter can apply electrical signals to the electrodes to ablate using IRE and/or RF techniques. The circuitry can short together a group of electrodes in the ablation state and electrically isolate the electrodes in that group from each other when in the mapping state. Using the adapter, the catheter can ablate and map at a treatment site without having to be repositioned between the mapping and ablation steps.

A partially-masked electrode includes a conductive material and an insulated coating having an outer surface. The insulated coating defines a contoured opening that exposes or reveals an area of the conductive material, wherein the contoured opening has an upper perimeter at the outer surface of the insulated coating. When the upper perimeter of the insulated surface coating is placed in contact with a tissue of interest, wherein the tissue of interest is proximate a blood pool, the insulated coating creates a seal between the blood pool and the contoured opening so that no blood in the blood pool can contact the conductive material. This seal reduces or eliminates the reception of far field effects in the blood pool by the electrode, making it easier to locate and diagnose unhealthy tissue.

The invention relates to a system (1) for stimulating renal nerves of a renal artery of a subject (3). The system comprises a stimulation device (12, 17, 28) for stimulating the renal nerves, a measuring unit (20) for measuring the blood pressure and/or the heart rate of the subject at at least two times, wherein at least one of these times is during or after the stimulation of the renal nerves, and a subject suitability determination unit (14) for determining whether the subject is suitable for a renal sympathetic denervation procedure based on the measured blood pressure and/or the measured heart rate. The invention allows therefore for a preselection of subjects which are suitable for a renal sympathetic denervation procedure.

Temperature sensing catheters and systems that can be used during cardiac ablation procedures to measure and monitor temperatures, and the rate and spread of temperature changes in the heart. The temperature data can be used to calculate temperature gradients, which may be used to estimate if and when certain regions of heart may undergo injury due to thermal exposure. The temperature data can be used to limit or cut-off power delivery to an ablation catheter, or otherwise modify the ablation procedure, to prevent injury to certain regions of heart. In some cases, the temperature data is used to control aspects of the ablation in a feedback loop control scheme.

A catheter includes, a shaft for insertion into an organ, an expandable distal-end assembly coupled to the shaft and includes splines, at least one of the splines includes a flexible substrate, configured to conform to tissue of the organ, and a sensing electrode, configured: (a) to be coupled to the flexible substrate, and (b) when in contact with the tissue, to produce a electrically signal indicative of an electrocardiogram signal sensed in the tissue, the sensing electrode including: (i) a gold substrate, formed over the flexible substrate and configured to conduct the electrically signal, (ii) a first polymer layer, formed over a first section of the gold substrate and configured to electrically isolate between the tissue and the gold substrate, and (iii) a second polymer layer, formed over a second, different, section of the gold substrate, and configured to conduct the electrocardiogram signal between the tissue and the gold substrate.