Sensome’s Clot-Sensing Guidewire Used in Proof-of-Concept Robotic Procedures

Sensome has completed successful Proof-of-Concept (POC) cases combining its Clotild Smart Guidewire System with Robocath’s commercial and next-generation robotic systems. The effort demonstrates Sensome’s smart guidewire technology can be coupled with any robotic system accessing the vasculature to provide sensor-obtained biological intelligence for procedure enhancement.

Physicians treating stroke currently must often take a time-consuming, trial-and-error approach to thrombectomy, as available imaging is murky and provides little information about the occlusion targeted for treatment. The Clotild clot-sensing guidewire integrates the world’s smallest electrical impedance sensor with predictive models and is designed to instantly identify clot composition and true clot position in situ to reduce guesswork and inform treatment approach during mechanical thrombectomy.

“This experience shows us that our clot-sensing guidewire has the potential to become the guidewire of choice for any medical robotic system that steers a wire,” Sensome Co-Founder/CEO Franz Bozsak said. “By successfully combining our sensor technology with robotics, we are taking an important step towards physical AI, where, over time, sensor‑derived data from clot and other tissue can feed our AI database to support easier and more precise device selection, positioning, and delivery.”

The proof-of-concept robotic procedures were performed using Sensome’s clot-sensing guidewire to navigate and sense tissue with Robocath’s R-One commercial robotic system and a next-generation robot under development in a silicone brain model with an animal clot inserted to mimic a stroke.

“The prospect of using robotics and AI to improve safety and efficiency in minimally invasive neurovascular interventions, such as thrombectomy, is exciting to us as physicians as we look to optimize our outcomes. The technology also has the potential to expand access to thrombectomy to rural areas, where a local robot could perform thrombectomy driven by remote experts from high-volume centers,” stated Raphaël Blanc, M.D., deputy head of Interventional Neuroradiology at Adolphe de Rothschild Foundation Hospital in Paris, who performed the proof-of-concept cases. “Using the smart guidewire instead of a conventional guidewire provided me with seamless navigation and in situ clot information that I cannot get any other way. Combining robotics with better information through sensing may become the future of thrombectomy.”

“We are excited to see that simply swapping to a smart wire with our robot can obtain procedural data with the potential to make robotic surgery even safer. A robot that can differentiate between clot and vessel wall and react accordingly has the potential to limit risk and optimize safety for any robotic thrombectomy,” Robocath Founder/President Philippe Bencteux, M.D., commented. “Combining the intelligence from smart devices with our own robotic intelligence will ultimately enable us to provide a new level of precision and care for patients with acute ischemic stroke.”

A clinical-stage healthtech startup, Sensome provides biological intelligence to physicians during minimally invasive procedures, bridging gaps left by conventional imaging. The company has developed a patented, breakthrough microsensor technology that combines the world’s smallest impedance-based sensor with proprietary predictive algorithms to identify and characterize tissues in situ in real time. The technology has been studied in three clinical indications, including total occlusion characterization (ischemic stroke, peripheral vascular disease) and in situ tool-in-lesion confirmation (lung cancer). The company intends to leverage its growing tissue database to deliver artificial intelligence (AI)-driven insights to physicians, and eventually, to couple this data with robotics to create physical AI-enabling, increasingly autonomous robotic minimally invasive interventions. Sensome partners with medtech companies to design, manufacture, and distribute smart medical devices powered by its biological intelligence, including guidewire manufacturer ASAHI INTECC for the Clotild Smart Guidewire System.

The Clotild Smart Guidewire System is an investigational device and is not approved for commercial use in the United States or any other jurisdiction.

Robocath is a global provider of vascular robotics based in Rouen, France. The company designs and markets advanced robotic solutions powered by a bionic technology for endovascular interventions, designed to integrate seamlessly with leading devices and cathlab workflows. Its first commercial platform, R-One, is dedicated to robotic-assisted coronary angioplasty and is one of the most frequently performed procedures worldwide. It has obtained CE Mark and NMPA certification and demonstrated a 98% technical procedural success rate with no MACE in multicenter clinical studies. R-One procedures are currently performed in Europe and China. Robocath’s aims to expand robotic assistance across the endovascular field—including coronary, neurovascular, and peripheral interventions—while accelerating innovation through artificial intelligence and enabling the future development of remote robotic procedures to broaden access to care.