INNOVATION January-February 2016

f ea t u r e s

Devising Biomedical Solutions in

British Columbia Engineers Help Find Answers to Global Medical Challenges

Krista Zala

The Globe ® Mapping and Ablation System fits through a seven-millimetre vein. Inside the heart's left atrium, it unfolds to sixty-seven millimetres in diameter. P hoto : K ardium

technique yields a more effective means of integrating young cells into a body, offering a glimmer of good news for the quarter- to half-million people who injure their spinal cords each year. Fascinating rhythms Atrial fibrillation is “a big problem with a poor solution today,” says Kevin Chaplin, Kardium’s vice president of business development. The human heart has four chambers: an atrium above a ventricle on the right side and another set on the left. Low-oxygen blood flows from the body into the right atrium, empties into the ventricle below and is lightly pumped out to the lungs for an oxygen top-up. The refreshed, red blood flows out of the lungs into the left atrium down to the left ventricle, which pumps it out the aorta to service the body’s hard- working tissues and organs. The sinus node keeps all the cardio- pulmonary bloodflow coordinated and smooth by sending regular electrical signals throughout the heart’s walls to trigger each pump, or heartbeat. Over time, high blood pressure, artery diseases and other health conditions can create erratic electrical impulses that interfere with normal signals from the sinus

Imagine a steel basket the diameter of a doorknob. When called to action, it folds into a ring about the size of corn kernel and travels gently through a major leg vein up to the heart. Upon reaching the heart’s left atrium, the ring unfurls to its basket shape, and its 300 or so electrodes scan the cavity to find and fix flaws that have thrown the heartbeat dangerously off-beat. Welcome to the future of treatment for atrial fibrillation, the most common heart rhythm disorder in the world. The Globe® Mapping and Ablation System, created by British Columbia company Kardium, is poised to revolutionise the existing medical procedure and boost its success rate. Kardium’s example is just one of many research and development projects advancing biomedical technologies in British Columbia. In the production category, a company specialising in simple motors is continually shrinking its muscle analogs used in prosthetics. Recent open- source projects have sunk the cost of some robotic hands to less than $100, making restored hand function more than just a wish for the estimated three million arm amputees worldwide. In the techniques category, another team is improving growth methods for notoriously tricky nerve cells. The

node. Irregular beats make for irregular pumping through the atria and ventricles. Blood can pool. Pooled blood can clot. A travelling clot can damage the kidneys or intestines, or cause a stroke. Currently, 30 million people worldwide have atrial fibrillation. The condition’s incidence is expected to increase among as developed countries’ populations age. Current medical treatments—surgery or pharmaceuticals—are less than ideal. Drugs that slow heartbeats or thin blood treat the symptoms, not the problem. Catheter ablation, part of the conventional surgical treatment, is time-consuming and difficult. In it, the physician inserts a single electrode into a leg vein, snakes it to the heart, and uses it first to map the left atrium, then to burn the tissue to alter the heart muscles’ electrical signal. Its modest success rate means some patients undergo two or three rounds before it works. Kardium wasted no time getting to the heart of the matter. “We hired the best team of engineers we could to take the existing treatment and make it better,” says Chaplin. Founded in 2007, the company aimed to create a device that could travel through a vein no wider than a straw, expand to cover the entire left atrium with electrodes that quickly and meticulously map the

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