Method and apparatus for controlling lesion size in catheter-based ablation treatment

1. A system for visualizing lesions on target tissue, the system comprising a data acquisition and processing unit configured to:

receive signals from a force sensor of an elongated flexible catheter comprising an ablation head, said force sensor signals being in reaction to forces exerted against said ablation head by said target tissue;

produce a sequence of contact force values based on said force sensor signals acquired over a time period of energization of said ablation head;

determine in real time a force-time integral based on said sequence of contact forces;

characterize a lesion based on said force-time integral; and

generate for display a visualization representing said characterization of said lesion.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein said characterization is a size parameter of said lesion, preferably at least one of volume, area, and depth of said lesion.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein said data acquisition and processing unit is configured to determine said size parameter of said lesion using a magnitude of an energization parameter delivered to said ablation head during said energization of said ablation head.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein said data acquisition and processing unit is configured to control said magnitude of said energization parameter during said energization of said ablation head.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein said controlled magnitude of said energization parameter is selected based on the contact forces of said sequence of contact forces to prevent or reduce incidence of steam pop.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data acquisition and processing unit is configured for measuring of magnitudes of an energization parameter delivered to said ablation head during said energization of said ablation head.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein said force-time integral is one of a force-energization-time integral, a force-energization-time product, and a normalized force-time integral.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein energization of said ablation head is terminated when said characterization reaches a predetermined value.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein said visualization comprises a first indicia based on said force-time integral and a second indicia based on energization of the ablation head, wherein said first indicia and said second indicia are preferably combined to display a visualization indicative of ablation effectiveness.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein energization further comprises energizing the ablation head when a contact force exceeds a desired force level.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data acquisition and processing unit is configured for determining a magnitude of an ablation energization parameter delivered to the ablation head during said period of energization, and wherein said characterizing step further comprises characterizing the lesion based on the force-time integral and the magnitude of the ablation energization parameter delivered to the ablation head.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein said visualization comprises indicia selected from the group consisting of shape, area, color, stroke, opacity, and fill pattern to indicate different lesion characteristics.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the visualization comprises a plurality of indicia, wherein a first indicia of said plurality of indicia is based on the force-time integral and a second indicia of said plurality of indicia is based on ablation energy.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein said data acquisition and processing unit is configured to overlay the visualization of said lesion on an anatomical model or an image.

15. A method of displaying a visualization representing a characteristic of a lesion, the method comprising:

measuring a sequence of contact forces on an elongate flexible catheter also comprising a force sensor, said contact forces being in reaction to forces exerted against an ablation head of the elongated flexible catheter;

controlling with a data acquisition and processing unit an energization of the ablation head for a period of time while said sequence of contact forces is being measured;

determining a force-time integral based on said sequence of contact forces that were measured with said force sensor over said period of time of energization of said ablation head, said force-time integral being determined in real time;

characterizing the lesion based on the force-time integral; and

generating on a display the visualization representing the characterization of the lesion.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising controlling said period of time of energizing said ablation head based on said force-time integral.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising estimating a size parameter of said lesion based on said force-time integral, and wherein said generating step further comprises using said estimated size parameter of said lesion.

18. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

determining a magnitude of an energization parameter delivered to said ablation head during said energization of said ablation head; and

estimating a size parameter of said lesion using said magnitude of said energization parameter.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising controlling said magnitude of said energization parameter during said energization of said ablation head.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein said controlled magnitude of said energization parameter is selected based on the contact forces of said sequence of contact forces to prevent or reduce incidence of steam pop.

21. The method of claim 15 , wherein said visualization comprises indicia selected from the group consisting of shape, area, color, opacity, and fill pattern to indicate different lesion characteristics.