Methods and devices are disclosed herein for therapeutically treating atrial tissue to lessen the effects of mechanical stress on atrial tissue, where reducing mechanical stress in the portion of atrial tissue reduces formation of at least one arrhythmia substrate. In one example, the devices and methods are suitable for minimally invasive surgery. More particularly, methods and devices described herein permit creating an ablation pattern on an organ while reducing excessive trauma to a patient.

A method for medical treatment includes providing a probe configured for insertion into a heart of a living subject and comprising at least one probe electrode configured to contact myocardial tissue in the heart. At least one body-surface electrode is configured to be fixed to skin of the living subject. Biphasic electrical pulses are applied between the at least one probe electrode and the at least one body-surface electrode with a peak-to-peak amplitude of at least 1 kV, a frequency of at least 500 kHz, and a current sufficient to cause irreversible electroporation of the myocardial tissue contacted by the at least one probe electrode.

A system for electroporation ablation including a catheter having an electrode assembly and one or more states. The electrode assembly may be in different shapes when the catheter is at different states. The controller is configured to generate, based on one or more models of electric fields, graphical representations of electric fields generated by the electrode assembly when the catheter is at different states. In some embodiments, the controller is configured to overlay the graphical representations of the one or more electric fields on an anatomical map of a patient.

Disclosed herein are systems, devices, and methods for treating heart failure. In some variations, a catheter for forming an anastomosis in a heart may comprise a first catheter comprising an electrode. A second catheter may be slidably disposed within the first catheter. The second catheter may comprise a barb and a dilator comprising a mating surface configured to engage the electrode.

Described herein is a method and system for gap detection in ablation lines. Microelectrodes are implemented at a distal tip of a catheter to provide localized gap detection along an ablation line. A pacing protocol is used to sequence through each of the microelectrode pairs for a tissue location. If living tissue is present, the pacing signal travels through the living tissue to pulse the heart. An operator will see a capture signal and know that there is a gap in the ablation line. The ablation electrode is then used to ablate the tissue in the gap. Pacing and ablation are therefore performed at the same place without the need to switch between instruments and/or catheters. In an implementation, a force sensor can automate the pacing protocol by determining which microelectrode pair is contacting the tissue. Moreover, signaling between microelectrode pairs can determine contact between the catheter and the tissue.

Planar end effector designs having irrigation are presented. The example end effectors are configured to be affixed to a distal end of a catheter and delivered through vasculature in a collapsed configuration and expand at an intracardiac treatment site to a deployed configuration. In some instances, the end effector can have an electrode array with sufficient density to perform mapping and irrigation for mapping. The end effector can include dedicated irrigation tubes and/or irrigating electrode-carrying spines to irrigate within the electrode array. Flow rate at positions within the electrode array can be controlled in a predetermined manner by varying pore/port size, flow direction, and/or flow path cross-section throughout an irrigation flow path in the end effector.

A quantum cardiac electrophysiology device comprising an array of consumable half-ferromagnetic active electrodes connected to an array of semiconductor of half-ferromagnetic selector switches over an array of half-ferromagnetic resistors to a neutral charges out of the heart, by casting and/or inking the arrhythmic substrate of an arrhythmia by the electrophysiology quantum entan- glement of said arrhythmic substrate.

A quantum spin liquid (QSL) electrophysiology device comprising a spontaneous and an induced quantum arrhythmia vacuum states, switchable between them through at least one entangled measurement of one negative differential resistance.

Disclosed are various embodiments of methods, components and systems configured to determine a location of a source of cardiac arrhythmia in a patient's heart. In some embodiments, to determine a source location, electrogram signals are acquired from a region of the patients' heart using a first set of electrodes; and then a pre-trained artificial intelligence (AI) model is applied to predict the location of the cardiac arrhythmia source by using the signals. Importantly, pre-training of the AI model comprises acquiring electrogram signals from explanted human hearts, the signals are generated by a second set of electrodes assembled into an electrode array that covers at least a part of the explanted human heart, and acquiring co-registered functional and/or structural imaging data in the part of the explanted human heart covered with the electrode array, wherein the functional and/or structural imaging data provide location of at least one source of cardiac arrhythmia.

An apparatus includes a current source, an electronic circuit and a circuit board. The current source is configured to flow an electrical current having a selected frequency between a pair of electrodes coupled to a medical probe. The electronic circuit is configured to measure a single-ended voltage relative to ground that is formed on at least one of the electrodes in the pair in response to the electrical current, and, based on the measured voltage, to assess physical contact between the at least one of the electrodes and tissue. The circuit board includes the current source and the electronic circuit, and includes a layout that produces, at the selected frequency, a predefined capacitance between the current source and ground, thus forming a reference for measurement of the single-ended voltage.