By outfitting a balloon catheter with advanced organ conformal electronic components, sensors and actuators, the researchers overcame the flaws of current systems. Specific advances over previous systems include:

* Instrumented sensors and actuators in multiplexed array formats can probe the complex nature of tissues, specifically in the beating heart. This will allow, for example, for better localization of sources of lethal arrhythmias causing sudden cardiac death.


* The device's multilayered and multifunctional architecture with combined diagnostic and therapeutic functions enhances a number of minimally invasive cardiac procedures, including radio frequency or irreversible electroporation ablation--wherein cardiac or nerve cells are ablated, or "burned," to eliminate sources of arrhythmia--and the delivery of drugs and other biomaterials directly into cells through a process called reversible electroporation.

* Capabilities for real-time feedback control, enabled by simultaneous, multimodal operation of sensors and actuators.

FROM THE RESEARCHERS

"We have taken new breakthrough materials and fabrication techniques typically employed by the semiconductor industry and applied them to the medical field, in this case cardiology, to advance a new class of medical instruments that will improve cardiac outcomes for patients and allow physicians to deliver better, safer and more patient-specific care." - Igor Efimov, the Alisann and Terry Collins Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the George Washington University

"Hard, rigid catheters cannot conform to the heart because the heart itself is not hard and rigid. We leveraged our advances in soft, stretchable and flexible electronics to develop medical devices that include elastic, interconnected arrays of sensors and actuators, capable of gently and softly conforming to tissue surfaces. The result improves the accuracy and precision of associated surgical processes, for faster, less risky and more effective treatments." - John A. Rogers, the Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University


PUBLICATION INFORMATION The paper, "Catheter-integrated soft multilayer electronic arrays for multiplexed sensing and actuation during cardiac surgery," will be published in Nature Biomedical Engineering on Sept. 7, 2020, at 11 a.m. ET.

Efimov and Rogers are available to discuss the newly developed technology and the need for continued work in this field.

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