System and method for ablating a tissue site by electroporation with real-time monitoring of treatment progress
AssigneeVirginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.
InventorsRobert Neal, II, Rafael V Davalos
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A medical system for ablating a tissue site with real-time monitoring during an electroporation treatment procedure. A pulse generator generates a pre-treatment (PT) test signal having a frequency of at least 1 MHz prior to the treatment procedure and intra-treatment (IT) test signals during the treatment procedure. A treatment control module determines impedance values from the PT test signal and IT test signals and determines a progress of electroporation and an end point of treatment in real-time based on the determined impedance values while the treatment progresses.
Claims24
A medical system for ablating a tissue site with real-time monitoring during an electroporation treatment procedure, comprising:
- at least two electrodes adapted to be introduced near a target region of a tissue site;
- a pulse generator configured to generate and apply between the electrodes a plurality of electroporation pulses for ablation of tissue in the target region, a pre-treatment (PT) test signal having a frequency of at least 1 MHz prior to the treatment procedure and intra-treatment (IT) test signals during the treatment procedure;
- a treatment control module adapted to determine impedance values from the PT test signal and IT test signals and to determine a progress of electroporation based on the determined impedance values.
A medical system for ablating a tissue site with real-time monitoring during an electroporation treatment procedure, comprising:
- at least two electrodes adapted to be introduced near a target region of a tissue site of a patient;
- a pulse generator configured to generate and apply between the electrodes a plurality of electroporation pulses for ablation of tissue in the target region, a pre-treatment alternating current (PT) test signal having a frequency of at least 1 MHz prior to the treatment procedure and a continuous intra-treatment direct current (IT) test signals during the treatment procedure;
- a treatment control module adapted to determine an impedance value from the PT test signal to establish a baseline impedance value and continuous impedance values from the IT test signals, and to determine an end point of the treatment procedure based on a comparison between the baseline impedance value and the continuous impedance values from the IT test signals.
A method of determining a progress of an electroporation treatment procedure for ablating a tissue site comprising:
- applying a pre-treatment (PT) test signal having a frequency of at least 1 MHz to a target region of a tissue site through at least one electrode;
- determining an impedance value based on the applied PT test signal;
- applying a plurality of intra-treatment (IT) test signals during the treatment procedure;
- determining an impedance value for each applied IT test signal;
- determining a progress of electroporation of the target issue site based on the determined impedance values of the IT test signals and PT test signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.