An innovative cardiac ablation system utilizes high voltage, high frequency, pulsed electric field (PEF) energy to ablate tissue.

The Galaxy Medical (San Carlos, CA, USA) Centauri System is an open energy platform that uses PEF technology to improve the safety and efficacy of cardiac ablation by reducing unintentional conductive heating or cooling of extracardiac structures, such as the esophagus, phrenic nerve, and airway. Efficacy is enhanced by creation of full-thickness, transmural lesions, as therapeutic doses of PEF energy are limited to the myocardium. Hardware and waveform control algorithms enable electrophysiologists to continue with their established point-by-point clinical workflow, as used in the majority of cardiac ablation procedures.

Key features of the Centauri System include a proprietary user interface; plug and play interfacing with all cardiac mapping and navigation systems; no-compromise compatibility with market-released focal and contact-force sensing catheters; choice of dose settings when treating variable tissue thickness; a proprietary technology that completely eliminates microbubbles (which may cause cerebral or coronary air emboli during PEF delivery); and automated voltage control to prevent both over- and under-dosing. A multicenter trial, the ECLIPSE-AF study, is underway to assess the safety and efficacy of the Centauri System

“Our research has consistently demonstrated that PEF with focal catheters yields predictable and transmural lesions, as opposed to inconsistent ablation depth and intermittent electrical stunning associated with multipolar catheters with variable contact,” said Jonathan Waldstreicher, MD, CEO of Galaxy Medical. “We look forward to completing enrollment of the ECLIPSE-AF study and sharing the clinical experience in the near future.”

“The Galaxy Medical Centauri System operated seamlessly within my atrial fibrillation ablation clinical workflow,” said Ante Anic?, MD, electrophysiology lab director at University Hospital Split (Croatia), and primary investigator of the ECLIPSE-AF study. “PEF energy is the future of electrophysiology, and Centauri allowed me to deliver it with a standard focal ablation technique to patients under conscious sedation, and without compromising on the ablation catheter, contact force feedback, or cardiac mapping system.”

Cardiac catheter ablation procedures are used to treat a variety of cardiac arrhythmias, especially supraventricular tachyarrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation (AF), atrial flutter, and atrial tachycardia. The procedures involve advancing a catheter into the heart and selectively ablating certain areas of tissue in order to prevent the spread of the electrical signals that give rise to the arrhythmia.

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