title: A novel four-wire-driven robotic catheter for radio-frequency ablation treatment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Robotic catheters have been proposed to increase the efficacy and safety of the radio-frequency ablation treatment. The robotized motion of current robotic catheters mimics the motion of manual ones-namely, deflection in one direction and rotation around the catheter. With the expectation that the higher dexterity may achieve further efficacy and safety of the robotically driven treatment, we prototyped a four-wire-driven robotic catheter with the ability to deflect in two- degree-of-freedom motions in addition to rotation.
  
  
  METHODS
  A novel quad-directional structure with two wires was designed and developed to attain yaw and pitch motion in the robotic catheter. We performed a mechanical evaluation of the bendability and maneuverability of the robotic catheter and compared it with current manual catheters.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that the four-wire-driven robotic catheter can achieve a pitching angle of 184.7[Formula: see text] at a pulling distance of wire for 11 mm, while the yawing angle was 170.4[Formula: see text] at 11 mm. The robotic catheter could attain the simultaneous two- degree-of-freedom motions in a simulated cardiac chamber.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results indicate that the four-wire-driven robotic catheter may offer physicians the opportunity to intuitively control a catheter and smoothly approach the focus position that they aim to ablate.
authors: Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, SPL L1-050 ASB1, Boston, MA, USA, kitarof1@bwh.harvard.edu.
authors: Kitaro
authors: K
authors: Yoshimitsu
authors: Takahisa
authors: T
authors: Kato
authors: Sang-Eun
authors: SE
authors: Song
authors: Nobuhiko
authors: N
authors: Hata
mesh_terms: D001013:Aorta, Thoracic; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017115:Catheter Ablation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000601:surgery*