High density atrial fibrillation cycle length (afcl) detection and mapping system

Abstract

Systems and methods to assist in locating the focus of an atrial fibrillation include the association of atrial fibrillation cycle length values and statistics relating thereto with temporal locations on an electrogram of a given electrode, and/or the coordination of electrode locations with respective the spectral analyses of electrogram signals and further parameters and statistics relating thereto. Ablation therapy can proceed under guidance of such information.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for mapping electrical activity of a heart, the system comprising:
 a catheter shaft;   a first electrode and a second electrode coupled to the catheter shaft; and   a processor coupled to the catheter shaft, wherein the processor is designed to:
 collect a first signal sensed by the first electrode and a second signal sensed by the second electrode over time; 
 generate a first frequency representation corresponding to the first signal and a second frequency representation corresponding to the second signal; 
 determine a first frequency parameter corresponding to the first frequency representation and a second frequency parameter corresponding to the second frequency representation; and 
 compare the first frequency parameter to the second frequency parameter. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is further designed to process the first signal and the second signal using a Fourier transform, a Fast Fourier transform and/or Welch's method to generate the first frequency representation corresponding to the first signal and the second frequency representation corresponding to the second. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the first and second frequency representations include a first and a second frequency spectrum, respectively. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is further designed to apply a band pass filter to at least one of the first signal and the second signal. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first frequency parameter and the second frequency parameter correlate to a time-domain parameter. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the time-domain parameter is an atrial fibrillation cycle length. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first frequency parameter includes a dominant frequency, a peak frequency, a peak frequency variation, a mean frequency, a regularity index, an organization index, a gradient and/or a standard deviation of frequency. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the processor is further designed to display the first frequency parameter on a display. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the processor is further designed to display a time-domain based parameter and the first frequency parameter on a display. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first frequency parameter is a first dominant frequency corresponding to the first frequency representation and the second frequency parameter is a second dominant frequency corresponding to the second frequency representation. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the processor is further designed to compare the first dominant frequency and the second dominant frequency to determine a regularity. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the processor is further designed to compare the first dominant frequency and the second dominant frequency to determine a gradient. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the first dominant frequency corresponds to a first cardiac location in the heart correlating to one or more foci of cellular patterns corresponding to atrial fibrillation. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the second dominant frequency corresponds to a second cardiac location in the heart correlating to one or more foci of cellular patterns corresponding to atrial fibrillation. 
     
     
         15 . A system for mapping electrical activity of a heart, the system comprising:
 a catheter shaft;   a first electrode and a second electrode coupled to the catheter shaft; and   a processor coupled to the catheter shaft, wherein the processor is designed to:
 collect a first signal sensed by the first electrode and a second signal sensed by the second electrode over time; 
 generate a first frequency spectrum corresponding to the first signal and a second frequency spectrum corresponding to the second signal; 
 determine a first dominate frequency corresponding to the first frequency spectrum and a second dominant frequency corresponding to the second frequency spectrum; 
 compare the first dominant frequency to the second dominant frequency; 
 correlate the first dominant frequency to a first cardiac location and the second dominant frequency to a second cardiac location; and 
 display the first dominant frequency, the second dominant frequency, the first cardiac location and/or the second cardiac location on a display. 
   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the processor is further designed to process the first and the second signals using a Fourier transform, a Fast Fourier transform and/or Welch's method to determine the first and second dominant frequencies, respectively. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the first cardiac location and the second cardiac location correlate to one or more foci of cellular patterns of atrial fibrillation. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the system further comprises an ablation element, and wherein the ablation element is designed to ablate the one or more foci of cellular patterns corresponding to atrial fibrillation. 
     
     
         19 . A system for mapping electrical activity of a heart, the system comprising:
 a catheter shaft;   a first electrode and a second electrode coupled to the catheter shaft; and   a processor coupled to the catheter shaft, wherein the processor is designed to:
 collect a first signal sensed by the first electrode and a second signal sensed by the second electrode over time; 
 generate a first frequency representation corresponding to the first signal and a second frequency representation corresponding to the second signal; 
 determine a first frequency parameter corresponding to the first frequency representation and a second frequency parameter corresponding to the second frequency representation; 
 compare the first frequency parameter to the second frequency parameter; 
 modify the first frequency parameter based on user input; and 
 display the modified first frequency parameter on a display. 
   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the processor is further designed to modify the second frequency parameter based on user input and display the modified second frequency parameter on the display.