AUTOMATIC LEFT VENTRICULAR IMPLANTING TOOLS AND IMPLANT LOCATION SELECTION (17-Dec-2009)

AUTOMATIC LEFT VENTRICULAR IMPLANTING TOOLS AND IMPLANT LOCATION SELECTION

            A large number of left ventricular (

LV

) lead and delivery tool choices are available on the market.  Clinically, the coronary venous anatomy of a patient could be a challenge.  Some cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) non-responders are such due to inappropriate lead location.  There exists a need to recommend the most appropriate lead and delivery system to a particular patient

Images of coronary venous structure (e.g., CT, MR, echocardiogram, or fluoroscopic images) can be transferred from the imaging system into an external programmer system such as for programming an implantable cardiac rhythm management (CRM) device or other implantable medical device (IMD).  In the programmer, there can be a database to match the patient’s specific targeted venous structure and, based on an algorithm, to provide suggestions to an implanting physician as to a set of optimal delivery tools and a type of coronary venous lead.  This can shorten the implant procedure and facilitate the lead and cardiac resynchronization (CRT) performance in a specific patient.  It can be noted that US Patent Publication No. 20080281195 relates to a system and method for planning

LV

lead placement for cardiac resynchronization therapy.

Coronary venous fluoroscopic images obtained at CRM device implant combined with individual patient disease history and other available images (e.g., echocardiogram, CT, MR, etc.) can be used as a tool to provide an implanting physician or device manufacturer’s representative information useful to select appropriate pulse generator (PG) and lead for a specific patient.

            Example of steps for automatic implanting tool and lead selection:

            1) Input patient’s disease history into the IMD’s external programmer or a computer.

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