Computational Modeling of Open-Irrigated Electrodes for Radiofrequency Cardiac Ablation Including Blood Motion-Saline Flow Interaction

PLoS One. 2016 Mar 3;11(3):e0150356. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150356. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) is a routine treatment for cardiac arrhythmias. During RFCA, the electrode-tissue interface temperature should be kept below 80 °C to avoid thrombus formation. Open-irrigated electrodes facilitate power delivery while keeping low temperatures around the catheter. No computational model of an open-irrigated electrode in endocardial RFCA accounting for both the saline irrigation flow and the blood motion in the cardiac chamber has been proposed yet. We present the first computational model including both effects at once. The model has been validated against existing experimental results. Computational results showed that the surface lesion width and blood temperature are affected by both the electrode design and the irrigation flow rate. Smaller surface lesion widths and blood temperatures are obtained with higher irrigation flow rate, while the lesion depth is not affected by changing the irrigation flow rate. Larger lesions are obtained with increasing power and the electrode-tissue contact. Also, larger lesions are obtained when electrode is placed horizontally. Overall, the computational findings are in close agreement with previous experimental results providing an excellent tool for future catheter research.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Arrhythmias, Cardiac / therapy*
  • Blood Flow Velocity
  • Cardiac Surgical Procedures / instrumentation
  • Cardiac Surgical Procedures / methods
  • Catheter Ablation / instrumentation*
  • Catheters
  • Computer Simulation
  • Electrodes
  • Electrophysiologic Techniques, Cardiac / instrumentation
  • Electrophysiologic Techniques, Cardiac / methods
  • Equipment Design
  • Heart / physiology
  • Heart Conduction System / physiology
  • Heart Conduction System / surgery
  • Humans
  • Motion
  • Pressure
  • Radio Waves*
  • Temperature

Grants and funding

This work was supported in part by the Basque Government through the BERC 2014-2017 program and by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MINECO through the BCAM Severo Ochoa excellence accreditation SEV-2013-0323, and also by the Spanish “Plan Estatal de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad” under Grant TEC2014–52383-C3-R (TEC2014–52383-C3–1-R) and Grant MTM2015-69992-R. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.