Target Indices for Clinical Ablation in Atrial Fibrillation Insights From Contact Force, Electrogram, and Biophysical Parameter Analysis
Clinical Trials Wednesday, February 26th, 2014CIRCEP: January 18, 2014
Background—In animal studies of radiofrequency ablation, lesion sizes plateau as the maximum lesion size is reached for an ablation. Lesion parameters are not available in clinical ablations, but preclinical work suggests that these correlate with impedance drop and electrogram attenuation. Characterization of the relationships between catheter contact force, ablation duration, and these surrogate markers of lesion formation may allow us to define targets for effective ablation.
Methods and Results—Fifteen patients undergoing first-time radiofrequency ablation for nonparoxysmal atrial fibrillation were studied. All were in atrial fibrillation at the time of the procedure. Ablations were performed with an irrigated-tip contact force–sensing catheter in temperature-controlled mode (temperature limited to 48°C, power to 30 W). Included were 285 left atrial static ablations, 247 with additional impedance data. Read More
