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Wireless Endocardial Atrial (and Ventricular) Sensing with no Implanted Power Source: a Proposal

  • Systems-Level Quality Improvement
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Abstract

Cardiac electrical activity is mainly evaluated by monitoring the electrical biosignals. This requires a long-lasting power supply to make implantable devices cost-effective and efficient. Since the current trend is to implant catheter-free stand-alone electrodes (implantable cardiac monitors), the need for smaller devices is at odds with the need for long-life batteries. To avoid these problems, we propose a passive endocardial sensor able to monitor the movement of the considered chamber based on a permanent magnet shaped for implantation in the internal chamber of the heart (i.e. the right atrium) and an external gauss meter unit to measure sensor-induced magnetic field variations. Since the magnet is permanent, no replacement is needed after the first implant, thereby reducing the risks linked to invasive procedures, and the battery in the external device can be substituted more easily. To test our idea we used a permanent magnet mounted on the tip of a commercial catheter for heart mapping together with a dedicated gauss meter built in our laboratory. The device was tested in vitro and the magnetic field variations were acquired and measured in different conditions of movement and distances. The results demonstrate the feasibility of our approach and open an interesting new scenario where permanent magnets can be used to monitor the mechanical behaviour of the heart.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine Department, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Ivan Corazza, Igor Diemberger, Christian Martignani, Matteo Ziacchi, Romano Zannoli & Mauro Biffi

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Pier Luca Rossi & Alessandro Lombi

  3. INFN Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Pier Luca Rossi & Alessandro Lombi

Authors
  1. Ivan Corazza
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  2. Igor Diemberger
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  3. Christian Martignani
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  4. Matteo Ziacchi
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  5. Pier Luca Rossi
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  6. Alessandro Lombi
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  7. Romano Zannoli
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  8. Mauro Biffi
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Correspondence to Ivan Corazza.

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We certify that:

1) there is no conflict of interest with any financial organization regarding the material discussed in the manuscript;

2) this article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors;

3) no funds were received for this study.

Regards,

Ivan Corazza

Igor Diemberger

Pier Luca Rossi

Alessandro Lombi

Matteo Ziacchi

Christian Martignani

Romano Zannoli

Mauro Biffi

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Corazza, I., Diemberger, I., Martignani, C. et al. Wireless Endocardial Atrial (and Ventricular) Sensing with no Implanted Power Source: a Proposal. J Med Syst 43, 159 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-019-1277-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-019-1277-6

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