ABSTRACT
Background: Facing an increasing number of radiofrequency ablation (RF) and cryoballoon ablation (CB) procedures for treatment of AF radiation exposure and its reduction is a focus point for interventional electrophysiologists. Objective: This study evaluated the procedural parameters of the different ablation methods focusing on radiation exposure and the BMI of the patients. Methods: One thousand one hundred and thirty-three first procedural cases of pulmonary vein isolation in patients with paroxysmal and persistent AF treated with RF and CB-based techniques were analyzed retrospectively over a period of 7 years focusing on the endpoints dose area product (DAP, cGycm2), fluoroscopy time (FT, min) and procedural time (PT, min). Results: Of the 1133 patients (mean age 63.4 ± 11.4 years, BMI 28.9 ± 4.7) 335 patients received an RF procedure, 211 patients were treated with the cryoballoon first generation (CB1), and 587 patients with cryoballoon second generation (CB2), respectively. The mean DAP for the PVI was 508 ± 654 cGycm2 in RF procedures, 1077 ± 683 cGycm2 in CB1-procedures, and 587 ± 489 cGycm2 in CB2-procedures with fluoroscopy times significantly shorter in RF procedures (9.6 ± 5.2 min) as compared to 17.7 ± 5.9 min in CB1- and 16.3 ± 6.3 min in CB2-procedures (p < .001). At the same time, the procedure duration using RF (115 ± 33.5 min) was significantly longer than both in CB1 (96 ± 16.8 min) and CB2 procedures (75 ± 15.9 min). Conclusions: Despite longer fluoroscopy durations in the CB technique, the CB2 resulted in a comparable low radiation exposure in PVI as compared to RF, accompanied by shorter procedure durations.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Transseptal puncture for left heart interventions became a routine procedure guided by fluoroscopy and echocardiography. The use of intracardiac potentials derived from the sheath-transseptal-needle/guidewire-combination may provide helpful information to increase safety of this procedure. METHODS AND RESULTS: We recorded the intracardiac potentials from the sheath-transseptal-needle/guidewire-combination during the transseptal puncture procedure in 31 consecutive patients (mean age 67.2±8.2years; 21 in sinus rhythm, 10 in atrial fibrillation) designated for ablation of atrial fibrillation by the Cryo-balloon ® technique (Medtronic, Minnesota, USA). The EP-Navigator ® 3-D-image integration tool (Philips Healthcare, Hamburg, Germany) was used for visualization of the device position in relation to the cardiac structures. Typical and reproducible potentials could be derived in all patients for the different device localizations at transseptal puncture procedure. Especially the transition from the muscular interatrial septum into the fossa ovalis could be easily depicted by the changes of both morphology and magnitude of the atrial signal (6.1±2.3mV in sinus rhythm [SR]/3.5±0.9mV in atrial fibrillation [AF] at the muscular interatrial septum and 0.5±0.2mV in SR/0.5±0.1mV in AF in the fossa ovalis). CONCLUSIONS: The crucial steps of a transseptal procedure can be verified by typical changes (morphology and amplitude) of the intracardiac signals derived from the sheath-transseptal-needle/guidewire-combination in patients with sinus rhythm as well as in atrial fibrillation.
