Impact of Catheter Slipping on Radiofrequency Catheter Ablation Lesion Formation: A Phantom Study
Abstract
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is characterized by rapid irregular contraction in the upper heart chambers. Radiofrequency (RF) ablation is a curative procedure for AF burns tissues with an electrode-tipped catheter, isolating sources of AF with patterns of scar tissue. These procedures have a high (
One poorly studied contributor to AF recurrence is catheter slipping. Cardiac anatomy often forces the catheter to approach tissues at angles, where cardiac/respiratory motion pushes the catheter tip along the endocardium, creating shallow non-transmural lesions that allow for AF to persist. This work aimed to quantify the impacts of catheter slipping.
In the first part of this thesis, I describe the development and validation of a quantitative atrial tissue ablation phantom – required to study catheter slipping. In the second, I describe the use of these phantoms to study catheter slipping. Our studies demonstrated that slipping demonstrated an angle-dependent impact on lesion durability.