Does the morphology of inferior pulmonary veins affect the difficulty of cryoballoon ablation in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation?
Specific anatomical variations of the inferior pulmonary veins, such as ventral orientation and low take-off, can complicate cryoballoon ablation procedures in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.
RIPV with ventral orientation may require difficult maneuvers to advance an ablation system towards it. Low take-off of the inferior PVs may cause non-coaxial configuration of balloon catheters towards the direction of these veins.
Yasuoka et al. (Sun,) studied this question.