Abstract

Interrupted ablation is increasingly proposed as part of high-power short duration radiofrequency ablation (RFA) strategies and may also result from loss of contact from respiratory patterns or cardiac motion.To study the extent that ablation interruption affects lesions.In ex vivo and in vivo experiments, lesion characteristics and tissue temperatures were compared between continuous (Group 1) and interrupted (Groups 2,3) RFA with equal total ablation duration and contact force. Extended duration ablation lesions were also characterized from 1 to 5 minutes.In the ex vivo study, continuous RFA (Group 1) produced larger total lesion volumes compared with each interrupted ablation lesion group (273.8±36.5 mm3 vs. 205.1±34.2 and vs. 174.3±32.3, all p<0.001). Peak temperatures for Group 1 were higher at 3mm and 5mm than Groups 2 and 3. In vivo, continuous ablation resulted in larger lesions, greater lesion depths, and higher tissue temperatures. Longer ablation durations created larger lesion volumes and increased lesion depths. However, after 3 min of ablation, the rate of lesion volume and depth formation decreased.Continuous RFA delivery resulted in larger and deeper lesions with higher tissue temperatures compared to interrupted ablation. This work may have implications for high-power short duration ablation strategies, motivates strategies to reduce variations in ablation delivery, and provides an upper limit for ablation duration beyond which power delivery has diminishing returns. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

View details for DOI 10.1111/jce.14510

View details for PubMedID 32323395