OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to evaluate lesion durability on invasive electrophysiologic remapping. BACKGROUND: The lattice-tip catheter generates a large thermal footprint during temperature-controlled irrigated radiofrequency ablation. In a first-in-human study, this catheter performed rapid point-by-point pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) and other linear atrial ablations. METHODS: In a prospective 3-center single-arm study, paroxysmal or persistent atrial fibrillation patients underwent PVI and, as needed, linear ablation at the cavotricuspid isthmus (CTI), mitral isthmus (MI), and/or left atrial roof; no other atrial substrate was ablated. Using the lattice catheter and a custom electroanatomic mapping system, temperature-controlled (Tmax 73° to 80°C; 2 to 7 s) point-by-point ablation was performed. Patients were followed for 12 months. RESULTS: A total of 65 patients (61.5% paroxysmal/38.5% persistent) underwent ablation: PVI in 65, MI in 22, left atrial roof in 24, and CTI in 48 patients. At a median of 108 days after the index procedure, protocol-mandated remapping was performed in 27 patients. The pulmonary veins (PVs) remained durably isolated in all but 1 reconnected PV-translating to durable isolation in 99.1% of PVs, or 96.3% of patients with all PVs isolated. Of 47 linear atrial lesions initially placed during the index procedure, durability was observed in 10 of 11 (90.9%) MI lines, all 11 (100%) roof lines, and all 25 (100%) CTI lines. After a median follow-up of 270 days, the 12-month Kaplan-Meier estimate for freedom from atrial arrhythmias was 94.4 ± 3.2%. CONCLUSIONS: Temperature-controlled lattice-tip point-by-point ablation showed not only highly durable PVI lesion sets, but also durable contiguity of linear atrial lesions.

Cardiovascular Medicine Toyohashi Heart Center Aichi Japan

Centre for Cardiology and Angiology Department of Cardiovascular Diseases Vilnius University Vilnius Lithuania

Department of Cardiology Homolka Hospital Prague Czech Republic

Department of Cardiology Homolka Hospital Prague Czech Republic; Department of Electrophysiology Division of Cardiology Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York New York USA

Harvard Thorndike Electrophysiology Institute Cardiovascular Division Department of Medicine Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Harvard Medical School Boston Massachusetts USA

Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine Department of Cardiology Prague Czech Republic

Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute at St David's Medical Center Austin Texas USA

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Oklahoma City Oklahoma USA

References provided by Crossref.org

Dual-energy lattice-tip ablation system for persistent atrial fibrillation: a randomized trial