Importance

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Abstract

Contact between an electrophysiology catheter electrode (6) and cardiac tissue covered by blood is sensed by applying a constant voltage or current square wave signal (23) to the electrode and then monitoring the voltage or impedance or current at the electrode before, during, and after the electrode contacts the tissue. The monitored pulse (22) includes an ohmic impedance portion (30) and combined ohmic and capacitive impedance portion (32). Successive monitored pulses can be measured in several ways to determine when tissue contact has occurred: the maximum magnitudes (36) of successive ohmic resistance portions; the initial slopes (38) for successive combined resistive portions; the amplitudes (40) of successive combined resistive portions at a preset time interval from the start of each pulse; and the average amplitudes (42) of successive combined impedance portions over a preset time period for each pulse. Upon contact, the magnitudes of each changes significantly, such as 40-50% in cardiac applications.

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First Claim