Hemodynamics Measurement in Radiofrequency Catheter Ablation

Measuring internal heart pressures allows for the assessment and diagnosis of a variety of cardiac conditions which are commonly found in patients undergoing catheter ablation, including congestive heart failure, diastolic dysfunction, and valvular heart disease. Currently it is unknown if taking pressure measurements with the ablation catheter is accurate and it is not standard practice to insert the additional 'gold standard' pressure sensing catheter. Catheter ablation of cardiac arrhythmia is performed to offer symptomatic relief from a variety of atrial, ventricular and atrio-ventricular rhythms. Irrigated ablation catheters are commonly used for ablation of arrhythmias arising from the left heart and coronary sinus. These catheters contain internal channels allowing for infusion of an external fluid directly to the tip of the catheter, where the fluid is sprayed through numerous end holes allowing for cooling of the catheter ablation tip.

Fluid filled catheters are also the primary tool utilized to assess intravascular and intracardiac pressures and hemodynamics in the cardiac catheterization suite and intensive care unit. However, the fluid filled catheters commonly used for these assessments are single lumen with a single end hole and generally have a larger minimal diameters compared to the ablation catheter. "Dampening" of pressure waveforms are observed in smaller diameter catheters and may lead to underestimation of peak pressure and overestimation of the nadir pressure gradient. It is unknown if transduction of pressures from the tip of an irrigated ablation catheter will yield equivalent results compared to use of a single 5 French (5F) sized lumen catheter.

This study will seek to enroll patients already scheduled to have a cardiac ablation for a clinical arrhythmia at Emory University Hospital. After completion of the standard ablation, the ablation catheter will be positioned in the heart and pressures will be measured. Next, a standard pressure sensing catheter will be positioned in the same area in the heart and pressures will be measured. The pressure values for each heart chamber assessed will be compared between the catheters. The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that transduction of intracardiac pressures using an irrigated ablation catheter placed as standard of care for the ablation procedure is equivalent to transduction of pressures using a standard 5F balloon tipped PA catheter placed only for this research study.