Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36968129›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in robotics and AI2023

Three-dimensional catheter tip force sensing using multi-core fiber Bragg gratings.

Omar Al-Ahmad, Mouloud Ourak, Johan Vlekken, Eric Lindner, Emmanuel Vander Poorten

Open access · goldFull text read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in robotics and AI, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
2.9field-weighted citation impact, top 8% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Smart Catheters for Diagnosis, Monitoring, and Therapy.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026
    Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Omar Al-AhmadRobot-Assisted Surgery (RAS) group, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven University, Leuven, Belgium.
Mouloud OurakRobot-Assisted Surgery (RAS) group, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven University, Leuven, Belgium.
Johan VlekkenFBGS International NV, Geel, Belgium.
Eric LindnerFBGS International NV, Geel, Belgium.
Emmanuel Vander PoortenRobot-Assisted Surgery (RAS) group, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven University, Leuven, Belgium.
KU Leuven · BE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Awareness of catheter tip interaction forces is a crucial aspect during cardiac ablation procedures. The most important contact forces are the ones that originate between the catheter tip and the beating cardiac tissue. Clinical studies have shown that effective ablation occurs when contact forces are in the proximity of 0.2 N. Lower contact forces lead to ineffective ablation, while higher contact forces may result in complications such as cardiac perforation. Accurate and high resolution force sensing is therefore indispensable in such critical situations. Accordingly, this work presents the development of a unique and novel catheter tip force sensor utilizing a multi-core fiber with inscribed fiber Bragg gratings. A customizable helical compression spring is designed to serve as the flexural component relaying external forces to the multi-core fiber. The limited number of components, simple construction, and compact nature of the sensor makes it an appealing solution towards clinical translation. An elaborated approach is proposed for the design and dimensioning of the necessary sensor components. The approach also presents a unique method to decouple longitudinal and lateral force measurements. A force sensor prototype and a dedicated calibration setup are developed to experimentally validate the theoretical performance. Results show that the proposed force sensor exhibits 7.4 mN longitudinal resolution, 0.8 mN lateral resolution, 0.72 mN mean longitudinal error, 0.96 mN mean lateral error, a high repeatability, and excellent decoupling between longitudinal and lateral forces.

Indexed as

catheter ablationfiber Bragg gratingsforce sensorminiaturized sensormulti-core fiber

Identifiers

PMID36968129
PMCPMC10031093
OpenAlexW4323567663

What OpenQuestion holds

Textfull text, public
LicenceCC BY
reference markers read2
measurements read26
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.