Multiplexed catheter-integrated pressure sensing system for endoluminal interventions

Advances in flexible catheters pave the way for minimally invasive diagnosis and treatment of luminal organs and tubular structures through endoluminal interventions. A key challenge is in establishing non-constraining pressure monitoring at the interfaces between medical catheters and intraluminal anatomy, where catheter–tissue interactions may be influenced by lumen curvature, structural variability, and physiological motion. In this work, we present a scalable and multi-purpose pressure sensing system for multidirectional monitoring of tissue interactions, establishing a robust solution for deploying diagnostic and therapeutic instruments in various types of endoluminal interventions. This approach provides an integrated pressure sensing platform that combines a thin-film piezoelectric sensor array with a bespoke multi-lumen catheter and a custom signal acquisition circuit. The sensor array is fabricated from an ultrathin poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) film using a multilayer sandwich architecture with patterned gold electrodes, resulting in a flexible device with a total thickness of approximately 20 µm and sensing units as small as 2.25 mm 2 . The multi-lumen catheter is fabricated with a cost-effective and highly scalable fiber drawing technology, establishing a means of fast prototyping catheters with bespoke microstructures for sensor integration and medical instrument deployment. Supported by a custom high-impedance acquisition circuit, the system achieves a sensitivity of 16 mV per kPa, which is approximately 25 times higher than state-of-the-art catheter-integrated sensors, while maintaining a sensing range from 0 to 80 kPa. Through in-vitro phantom studies, the system performs precise multi-directional sensing within various clinical endoluminal scenarios, showing its potential in digitalizing tissue interactions during endoluminal interventions.