MRI-guided Stroke Treatment with Ultrahigh Field-Steerable Robotic Magnetic Catheter

Stroke is among the most common causes of death and disabilities in aging societies. With a yearly 1.12 million incidence causing about 440 thousand deaths and a €45 billion healthcare cost in Europe only, stroke is a major socioeconomic burden. Acute ischemic stroke (AIS), the most common type at 87%, results in sudden blood circulation loss, leading to tissue death in a specific brain area. The disability-free outcome of AIS is directly related to fast and efficient stroke treatment, also referred to by clinicians as “Time-is-Brain.” Unfortunately, state-of-the-art endovascular stroke diagnosis and therapies take an average of 6 hours (stroke)-onset-to-treatment. An average of 2 hours is spent moving the patient from the medical imaging suite to the angiography suite after the diagnosis and accessing the stroke location using traditional endovascular instruments with limited steerability. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)-guided STROKE Treatment with ultrahigh field (UHF)-steerable RoBOTic magnetic catheter (MR-STROKEBOT) project aims to minimize the treatment time by developing a magnetically actuated on-demand robotic thrombectomy surgery platform operating in the MRI scanner. MR-Strokebot’s key technologies are MRI-powered UHF magnetic actuation for high steerability and an MR image-based catheter tracking method. Combining these two techniques in an MRI-guided robotic platform, the MR-Strokebot will reduce treatment time in two ways. First, it will save time by eliminating the post-diagnostic mobility of the patient by performing the surgery in an MRI scanner right after diagnosis. Second, it will increase the endovascular navigation speed by enhanced steerability and MRI-guided robotic control. By significantly reducing treatment time, the MR-Strokebot has the potential to revolutionize endovascular stroke treatment in clinics and ultimately reduce the socioeconomic burden of stroke.