Lesion characteristics
Lesion characteristics are summarized in Table 2. Lesions with
steam-pops were excluded from the lesion metrics. At 20W, the
TactiCathTM SE catheter provided larger lesions than
the FlexAbilityTM SE catheter (depth: 4.0mm vs. 3.8mm,
p=0.021, surface area: 26.4mm2 vs.
30.0mm2, p=0.068; lesion volume:
175.1mm3 vs. 149.0mm3, p=0.067).
When the catheter was placed perpendicularly to the tissue, lesion depth
(4.4mm vs. 4.0mm, p=0.014), surface area (29.2mm2 vs.
22.7mm2, p=0.005) and lesion volume
(175.1mm3 vs. 126.1mm3, p=0.018)
were significantly larger with the TactiCathTM SE
catheter. However, when the catheter was placed parallelly, no
difference in lesion characteristics was observed between these two
catheters. The same findings were also observed at 30W and 40W settings.
However, comparison of lesion sizes in 40W was less reliable due to
exclusion of multiple points due to more frequent steam-pops with the
TactiCathTM SE catheter (52/90 [57.8%] vs. 11/90
[12.2%], p<0.001).
A positive relationship between lesion volume and RF duration was
observed for both catheters as shown in Figure 2. With perpendicular
catheter placement, lesions were generally larger with the
TactiCathTM SE than FlexAbilityTM SE
catheters (Figure 2A,C), while no significant difference in lesion size
was observed with parallel catheter placement (Figure 2B,D).