Noncontact radio-frequency ablation for obtaining deeper lesions

Jie Zhang, Jang Zern Tsai, Hong Cao, Yi Chen, James A. Will, Vicken R. Vorperian, John G. Webster

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Radio-frequency (RF) cardiac catheter ablation has been very successful for treating some cardiac arrhythmias, however, the success rate for ventricular tachycardias is still not satisfactory. Some existing methods for developing deeper lesions include active cooling of the electrode and modifying the electrode shape. We propose a method of noncontact ablation, to solve this problem. We apply 120 W of power through an 8-mm electrode for a 120-s duration, with distances from 0 to 3 mm between electrode and myocardium, to create lesions in myocardium. We apply flow rates of 1, 3, and 5 L/min to determine their effect. Results show that with an optimal distance from 0.5 to 1.5 mm between electrode and myocardium, we increase lesion depth from 7.5 mm for contact ablation to 9.5 mm for noncontact ablation. For different flow rates, the optimal distance various. The effect of flow rate is not obvious. Higher flow rate does not lead to a deeper lesion.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)218-223
Number of pages6
JournalIEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
Volume50
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Feb 2003

Keywords

  • Ablation
  • Electrode
  • Noncontact electrode
  • Radio-frequency ablation

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