MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA-- Hansen Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ: HNSN) announced an equity investment in Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics, Inc. (ACT), and the securing of exclusive rights to certain ACT intellectual property for certain robotic applications. ACT, a privately held company located in Laguna Beach, Calif., is developing a novel technology that is designed to accurately measure the temperature in a lesion during cardiac ablation procedures.

Current manual technology used by physicians to control catheters in electrophysiology procedures can be limiting in several ways including, precise catheter control and stability, as well as the inability to accurately sense tissue temperature and its potential effect on lesion quality. The Sensei® Robotic Catheter System from Hansen Medical has helped to advance the control of electrophysiologic mapping catheters by using flexible medical robotics technology to provide stable and predictable control of catheter movement inside the heart.

ACT's patented Microwave Radiometry System has the potential to be incorporated into standard and irrigated cardiac catheters. A catheter with ACT's technology would have the potential to assist electrophysiologists by providing real-time feedback about effective energy delivery by the catheter. ACT's technology has not been clinically tested and has not received regulatory approval.

In reference to the technology, Paul Wang, M.D., a leading electrophysiologist at Stanford University Medical Center says he believes that, "Accomplishing accurate and real-time temperature sensing has the potential to dramatically improve our ability to create safe, efficacious and persistent lesions."

"Hansen Medical continues to build on the value of flexible robotics technology and we are very pleased to add certain rights to this promising Microwave Radiometry System to our technology portfolio," said Frederic Moll, M.D., founder and chief executive officer, Hansen Medical.

About Hansen Medical

Hansen Medical Inc., based in Mountain View, Calif., develops products and technology using robotics for the accurate positioning, manipulation and control of catheters and catheter-based technologies. Its first product, the Sensei® Robotic Catheter system, is a robotic navigation system that enables clinicians to place mapping catheters in hard-to-reach anatomical locations within the heart easily, accurately and with stability during complex cardiac arrhythmia procedures. The Sensei system is compatible with fluoroscopy, ultrasound, 3D surface map and patient electrocardiogram data and was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2007 for manipulation and control of certain mapping catheters in Electrophysiology (EP) procedures. The safety and effectiveness of the Sensei system for use with cardiac ablation catheters in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation (AF), have not been established. In the European Union, the Sensei system is cleared for use during EP procedures, such as guiding catheters in the treatment of AF. Additional information can be found at www.hansenmedical.com.

About Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics, Inc.

Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics, based in Laguna Beach, Calif., was founded in 2007 to develop products and technology using proprietary Microwave Radiometry for use in electrophysiology. Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics is a privately held company.

More Voices