Key result
Thermal strain imaging using an intracardiac echocardiography array demonstrated feasibility in detecting tissue damage during radio-frequency ablation by showing a plateau in thermal strain curves.
Why the study?
Does thermal strain imaging accurately detect tissue damage during intracardiac radio-frequency ablation in porcine models?
Does thermal strain imaging accurately detect tissue damage during intracardiac radio-frequency ablation in porcine models?
Thermal strain imaging using intracardiac echocardiography is a feasible method to monitor tissue temperature and detect irreversible injury during radio-frequency ablation.
Supports preclinical validation of thermal strain imaging; leaves open translation to human ablation outcomes.
A method is introduced to monitor cardiac ablative therapy by examining slope changes in the thermal strain curve caused by speed of sound variations with temperature. The sound speed of water-bearing tissue such as cardiac muscle increases with temperature. However, at temperatures above about 50°C, there is no further increase in the sound speed and the temperature coefficient may become slightly negative. For ablation therapy, an irreversible injury to tissue and a complete heart block occurs in the range of 48 to 50°C for a short period in accordance with the well-known Arrhenius equation. Using these two properties, we propose a potential tool to detect the moment when tissue damage occurs by using the reduced slope in the thermal strain curve as a function of heating time. We have illustrated the feasibility of this method initially using porcine myocardium in vitro. The method was further demonstrated in vivo, using a specially equipped ablation tip and an 11-MHz microlinear intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) array mounted on the tip of a catheter. The thermal strain curves showed a plateau, strongly suggesting that the temperature reached at least 50°C.
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Seo et al. (2011) studied Cardiac ablation therapy. Thermal strain imaging using an 11-MHz microlinear intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) array was evaluated on Detection of tissue damage by examining slope changes in the thermal strain curve. Thermal strain imaging using an intracardiac echocardiography array demonstrated feasibility in detecting tissue damage during radio-frequency ablation by showing a plateau in thermal strain curves.
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