Key result
Pulsed radiofrequency heating achieves reasonable ablation zones without undesired temperature peaks in 3D computational models.
Why the study?
Reducing temperature peaks during radiofrequency cardiac ablation is needed to avoid damaging healthy tissue or causing device electrical issues while maintaining treatment efficacy.
Does pulsed heat modulation during radiofrequency cardiac ablation produce a reasonable ablation zone without undesired temperature peaks in a computational model?
Does pulsed heat modulation during radiofrequency cardiac ablation produce a reasonable ablation zone without undesired temperature peaks in a computational model?
A computational model suggests that pulsed radiofrequency may help modulate temperature fields during cardiac ablation to achieve effective lesions while avoiding undesired temperature peaks.
May support preclinical testing of pulsed RF ablation; leaves open clinical translation and safety.
Heart arrhythmia is caused by abnormal electrical conduction through the myocardium, which in some cases, can be treated with heat. One of the challenges is to reduce temperature peaks-by still guaranteeing an efficient treatment where desired-to avoid any healthy tissue damage or any electrical issues within the device employed. A solution might be employing pulsed heat, in which thermal dose is given to the tissue with a variation in time. In this work, pulsed heat is used to modulate induced temperature fields during radiofrequency cardiac ablation. A three-dimensional model of the myocardium, catheter and blood flow is developed. Porous media, heat conduction and Navier-Stokes equations are, respectively, employed for each of the investigated domains. For the electric field, solved via Laplace equation, it is assumed that the electrode is at a fixed voltage. Pulsed heating effects are considered with a cosine time-variable pulsed function for the fixed voltage by constraining the product between this variable and time. Different dimensionless frequencies are considered and applied for different blood flow velocity and sustained voltages. Results are presented for different pulsed conditions to establish if a reasonable ablation zone, known from the obtained temperature profiles, can be obtained without any undesired temperature peaks.
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Iasiello et al. (2023) studied Heart arrhythmia. Pulsed radiofrequency heating was evaluated on Temperature profiles and ablation zone. Pulsed radiofrequency heating modulated induced temperature fields in a 3D computational model of cardiac ablation, achieving a reasonable ablation zone without undesired temperature peaks.
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