Comparison of lesion characteristics using temperature-flow-controlled versus conventional power-controlled ablation...

The QDOT-Micro^TM catheter is a novel irrigated contact force (CF) sensing catheter which benefits from thermocouples for temperature monitoring, allowing temperature-flow-controlled (TFC) ablation. We compared lesion metrics at fixed ablation index (AI) value during TFC-ablation and conventional power-controlled (PC)-ablation.

A total of 480 RF-applications were performed on ex-vivo swine myocardium with predefined AI targets (400/550) or until steam-pop occurred, using the QDOT-Micro^TM (TFC-ablation) and Thermocool SmartTouch SF^TM (PC-ablation).

Both TFC-ablation and PC-ablation produced similar lesions in volume (218 ± 116 vs. 212 ± 107 mm³ , p = .65); however, lesions using TFC-ablation were larger in surface area (41.3 ± 8.8 vs. 34.8 ± 8.0  mm² , p < .001) and shallower in depth (4.0 ± 1.0 vs. 4.2 ± 1.1 mm, p = .044). Average power tended to be lower in TFC-alation (34.2 ± 8.6 vs. 36.9 ± 9.2, p = .005) compared to PC-ablation due to automatic regulation of temperature and irrigation-flow. Although steam-pops were less frequent in TFC-ablation (24% vs. 15%, p = .021), they were particularly observed in low-CF (10 g) and high-power ablation (50 W) in both PC-ablation (n = 24/240, 10.0%) and TFC-ablation (n = 23/240, 9.6%). Multivariate analysis revealed that high-power, low-CF, long application time, perpendicular catheter orientation, and PC-ablation were risk factors for steam-pops. Furthermore, activation of automatic regulation of temperature and irrigation-flow was independently associated with high-CF and long application time while ablation power had no significant relationship.

With a fixed target AI, TFC-ablation reduced the risk of steam-pops, producing similar lesions in volume, but with different metrics in this ex-vivo study. However, lower CF and higher power in fixed-AI ablation may increase the risk of steam-pops.