Effect of Epicardial Fat on Electroanatomical Mapping and Epicardial Catheter Ablation

Endocardial and Epicardial Radiofrequency Catheter Ablation

Myocarditis is simply defined as an inflammatory condition mainly located in the heart muscle, although considerable uncertainties still persist as to its etiologic, pathological, and clinical subclassifications. In addition to the possibility of an aspecific flulike prodrome, possible presentations include different degrees of heart failure (ranging from cardiogenic shock to subtly progressive...

Catheter Ablation of Ventricular Epicardial Tissue

Background—Transthoracic epicardial catheter ablation is an emerging catheter ablation strategy being used clinically at increasing frequency. However, the efficacy of standard RF ablation on the epicardial surface of the heart is hindered by (1) the lack of convective cooling of the ablation electrode and (2) the varying presence of epicardial adipose tissue interposed between the ablation ele...

Unusual complications of percutaneous epicardial access and epicardial mapping and ablation of cardiac arrhythmias.

BACKGROUND Percutaneous epicardial access and mapping/ablation of cardiac arrhythmias are being increasingly performed. Although complications such as pericardial effusion are relatively common, other unusual complications may occur due to the complex anatomic architecture of the heart and surrounding tissues. In this report, we report a series of rare and unusual complications related to percu...

Mathematical Modeling of Epicardial RF Ablation of Atrial Tissue with Overlying Epicardial Fat

The efficacy of treating atrial fibrillation by RF ablation on the epicardial surface is currently under question due to the presence of epicardial adipose tissue interposed between the ablation electrode and target site (atrial wall). The problem is probably caused by the electrical conductivity of the fat (0.02 S/m) being lower than that of the atrial tissue (0.4-0.6 S/m). Since our objective...

Deliberate epicardial catheter ablation lesions: making outside contact.