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Flow effect on lesion formation in RF cardiac catheter ablation
Author(s)
Cao, Hong
Vorperian, Vicken R.
Tsai, Jang Zern
Haemmerich, Dieter
Choy, Young Bin
Webster, John G.
Date Issued
April 23, 2001
Type
Article
Abstract
This study investigated the flow effect on the lesion formation during radio-frequency cardiac catheter ablation in temperature-controlled mode. The blood flow in heart chambers carries heat away from the endocardium by convection. This cooling effect requires more power from the ablation generator and causes a larger lesion. We set up a flow system to simulate the flow inside the heart chamber. We performed in vitro ablation on bovine myocardium with three different flow rates (0 L/min, 1 L/rain and 3 L/min) and two target temperatures (60 °C and 80 °C). During ablation, we also recorded the temperatures inside the myocardium with a three-thermocouple temperature probe. The results show that lesion dimensions (maximum depth, maximum width and lesion volume) are larger in high flow rates (p < 0.01). Also, the temperature recordings show that the tissue temperature rises faster and reaches a higher temperature under higher flow rate.
Citation
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 48(4), 425-433, 2001