Discriminating Tissue Stiffness with a Haptic Catheter: Feeling the Inside of the Beating Heart

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Devices
• Haptics Technology

Background:

• Catheter devices provide access but lack tactile feedback for assessing tissue properties.
• Tissue motion and catheter limitations (compliance, friction, backlash) hinder tactile assessment.
• Enhanced tactile information is crucial for improving physician capabilities during catheter procedures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a motion-compensated actuated catheter system for haptic perception of moving tissue.
• To increase the tactile information available to physicians during catheter-based palpation procedures.
• To assess the efficacy of the haptic feedback system in differentiating material properties.

Main Methods:

• Development of a novel actuated catheter with a distal tip force sensor and force feedback interface.
• Instrumentation of the catheter for motion compensation and haptic perception.
• Psychophysical study comparing the haptic device against a conventional manual catheter using a cardiac motion simulator.

Main Results:

• The actuated catheter system enables haptic perception of fast-moving tissue structures.
• Users demonstrated improved accuracy in differentiating material properties when using the haptic device.
• The haptic system reduced the total number of differentiation errors by 50% compared to the manual catheter.

Conclusions:

• The developed motion-compensated actuated catheter system effectively enhances tactile feedback during medical procedures.
• Haptic feedback significantly improves a physician's ability to assess tissue mechanical properties.
• This technology holds promise for improving diagnostic accuracy and procedural outcomes in catheter-based interventions.