Title
Characterization of Radiofrequency Ablation Lesion Development Based on Simulated and Measured Intracardiac Electrograms.
Abstract
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) therapy is the gold standard in interventional treatment of many cardiac arrhythmias. A major obstacle is nontransmural lesions, leading to recurrence of arrhythmias. Recent clinical studies have suggested intracardiac electrogram (EGM) criteria as a promising marker to evaluate lesion development. Seeking for a deeper understanding of underlying mechanisms, we established a simulation approach for acute RFA lesions. Ablation lesions were modeled by a passive necrotic core surrounded by a borderzone with properties of heated myocardium. Herein, conduction velocity and electrophysiological properties were altered. We simulated EGMs during RFA to study the relation between lesion formation and EGM changes using the bidomain model. Simulations were performed on a three-dimensional setup including a geometrically detailed representation of the catheter with highly conductive electrodes. For validation, EGMs recorded during RFA procedures in five patients were analyzed and compared to simulation results. Clinical data showed major changes in the distal unipolar EGM. During RFA, the negative peak amplitude decreased up to 104% and maximum negative deflection was up to 88% smaller at the end of the ablation sequence. These changes mainly occurred in the first 10 s after ablation onset. Simulated unipolar EGMs reproduced the clinical changes, reaching up to 83% negative peak amplitude reduction and 80% decrease in maximum negative deflection for transmural lesions. In future studies, the established model may enable the development of further EGM criteria for transmural lesions even for complex geometries in order to support clinical therapy.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1109/TBME.2014.2322515
IEEE Trans. Biomed. Engineering
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Acute lesion model, bidomain model, intracardiac electrograms (EGM), radiofrequency ablation (RFA), simulation
Journal
61
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
9
0018-9294
3
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.49
0
8
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Matthias Walter Keller170.93
Steffen Schuler230.49
Mathias Wilhelms3314.95
Gustavo Lenis4134.01
Gunnar Seemann521248.50
Claus Schmitt6192.90
Olaf Dössel726456.10
Armin Luik8397.09