In the last few years our group has pioneered an innovative minimally invasive approach to the heart for a growing portfolio of therapies that appeals to both minimally invasive cardiac surgeons and interventional specialists (e.g., cardiac electrophysiologists). The approach involves direct subxiphoid access to the pericardial space without interfering with the chest wall integrity and physiology. The clinical procedures that could benefit from such an approach include many that are performed wholly or primarily within the intrapericardial space. To date, many such procedures are performed thoracoscopically, necessitating differential lung ventilation and general endotracheal anesthesia. During the original period of this R01 grant, we have demonstrated the feasibility of intrapericardial intervention on the beating heart without entering the pleural space by developing """"""""HeartLander"""""""", a tethered miniature robotic crawler that enters the pericardium via subxiphoid incision, attaches itself directly to the surface of the beating heart, moves to the desired epicardial location, and delivers therapy under the control of the surgeon. A prominent clinical goal in recent years in cardiac medicine has been the concept of combining diagnosis and treatment in a single session, sometimes referred to as """"""""one-stop shopping."""""""" HeartLander is well suited as a delivery vehicle for both diagnostic and interventional tools of various types, and as such is an ideal tool for realizing this vision. Potential clinical applications are numerous;as an example application, we propose to focus the development of the technology on its relevance to heart failure. We hypothesize that HeartLander can autonomously map an infarct region epicardially and intervene (delineating the region with injected ink) more accurately and more rapidly than a trained clinician using state-of-the-art hand-guided tools.
This research aims to develop methods for image-guided autonomous locomotion of HeartLander, first using static heart image data, and then using dynamic (beating) heart imagery. Techniques for image-guided autonomous epicardial mapping will be developed. Finally, methods will be developed for simultaneous image-guided autonomous cardiac mapping and intervention in a single session. All techniques developed will be evaluated, first in appropriate artificial heart phantoms, and then in a porcine model in vivo.

Public Health Relevance

This research aims to develop technology that will improve public health outcomes by enhancing the capabilities of surgeons and cardiologists to access and treat the surface of the beating heart through small incisions, without requiring deflation of a lung for access.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HL078839-08
Application #
8469549
Study Section
Bioengineering, Technology and Surgical Sciences Study Section (BTSS)
Program Officer
Baldwin, Tim
Project Start
2009-08-01
Project End
2014-05-31
Budget Start
2013-06-01
Budget End
2014-05-31
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$351,748
Indirect Cost
$70,884
Name
Carnegie-Mellon University
Department
Miscellaneous
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
052184116
City
Pittsburgh
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
15213
Wood, Nathan A; Schwartzman, David; Passineau, Michael J et al. (2018) Organ-mounted robot localization via function approximation. Int J Med Robot :e1971
Wood, Nathan A; Schwartzman, David; Passineau, Michael J et al. (2018) Beating-heart registration for organ-mounted robots. Int J Med Robot 14:e1905
Meglan, Dwight A; Lv, Wener; Cohen, Richard J et al. (2017) Techniques for epicardial mapping and ablation with a miniature robotic walker. Robot Surg 4:25-31
Wood, Nathan A; Schwartzman, David; Zenati, Marco A et al. (2017) Physiological motion modeling for organ-mounted robots. Int J Med Robot 13:
Zhu, Yang; Wood, Nathan A; Fok, Kevin et al. (2016) Design of a Coupled Thermoresponsive Hydrogel and Robotic System for Postinfarct Biomaterial Injection Therapy. Ann Thorac Surg 102:780-786
Costanza, Adam D; Breault, Macauley S; Wood, Nathan A et al. (2016) Parallel Force/Position Control of an Epicardial Parallel Wire Robot. IEEE Robot Autom Lett 1:1186-1191
Breault, Macauley S; Costanza, Adam D; Wood, Nathan A et al. (2015) Auto-Calibration for a Planar Epicardial Wire Robot. Proc IEEE Annu Northeast Bioeng Conf 2015:
Breault, Macauley S; Costanza, Adam D; Wood, Nathan A et al. (2015) Toward hybrid force/position control for the Cerberus epicardial robot. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2015:7776-9
Costanza, Adam D; Wood, Nathan A; Passineau, Michael J et al. (2014) A parallel wire robot for epicardial interventions. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2014:6155-8
Wood, Nathan A; Waugh, Kevin; Liu, Tian Yu Tommy et al. (2013) Space-Time Localization and Registration on the Beating Heart. Rep U S 2012:3792-3797

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