Discussion

In this study, we provide an industry-independent validation of the accuracy of contemporary contact force ablation catheters. The main findings of this study are:
First, the overall correlation between measured force and real force was excellent with 𝜌𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛 ≥0.98 for all models. Second, within the clinical range of 10g-40g the absolute measurement errors were low with mean errors of <3g. Third, at higher forces, some combinations of catheter and angle can result in significant underestimation or overestimation of the real force by more than 15g.