Freezing of the myocardium is used to treat cardiac arrhythmias (cryoablation). Currently cryoablation must be performed by sternotomy, and can include placement on cardiopulmonary bypass. It is a proven safe and effective treatment method in the surgical setting. Transvascular cryoablation would be a preferred treatment to the currently accepted catheter method of radiofrequency fulguration, because it minimizes serious side effects, can create linear lesions, and can destroy more tissue. This may allow the treatment of atrial fibrillation and ventricular arrhythmias, which are not consistently treatable with radiofrequency methods. CryoGen has developed a patented novel closed cycle cooling system and rudimentary catheter like probe that can achieve temperatures to -120 degrees C at pressures of 300 psi. This is a significant improvement over existing technologies which achieve practical temperatures to -60 degrees C at pressures of 750 psi and are open cycle. The lower pressure of CryoGen improves safety and flexibility, and the decreased temperature provides the necessary destructive potential. It is the specific aim of Phase I funding to develop a catheter suitable for animal investigation/pre-clinical investigation during Phase II funding.Proposed commercial application:A cryosurgical ablation catheter has significant competitive advantages over existing ablation catheters that destroy tissue by burning. It may broaden the range of treatable arrhythmias to atrial fibrillation and ventricular arrhythmia. Two million persons suffer from atrial fibrillation and 500,000 persons suffer from some form of ventricular arrhythmia.National Institute of Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
