title: Robot-assisted catheter manipulation for intracardiac navigation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Manual navigation of intracardiac steerable catheters is inaccurate, requires dexterity for efficient manipulation of the catheter, and exposes the interventionalist to ionizing radiation. The objective of this research is to develop a system that replaces the interventionalists's hands in catheter manipulation for accurate and semi-automatic tele-navigation of catheters.
  
  
  METHODS
  Based on a proposed kinematic model for the distal shaft of the catheter, a system has been developed for assisted navigation of intracardiac catheters. When the distal shaft of the catheter lies inside a cardiac chamber, a robotic apparatus is utilized for automatic steering of the catheter tip to reach designated targets within the chamber.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The catheter modeling was validated through the experiments on three swine. The robotic system could navigate the catheter tip to designated targets with a mean distance of 6.53 mm from the target.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Preliminary in vivo studies demonstrate the feasible application of the system in catheter navigation and the validity of catheter modeling and control strategies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada. yganji@ieee.org
authors.forename: Yusof
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ganji
authors.forename: Farrokh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Janabi-Sharifi
authors.forename: Asim N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Cheema
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization / Q000379:methods*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004867:Equipment Design; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013552:Swine