Abstract
Combination of elementary parameters (force, time, power, impedance drop) have been proposed to optimize radiofrequency (RF) delivery. They have been partially validated in clinical studies. We conducted a survey to assess their implementation into clinical practice. A 36-question electronic form was sent to 105 electrophysiologists including some general questions concerning the practice of catheter atrial fibrillation ablation and items concerning the parameters used for contact-force (CF)-guided ablation. Answers from 95 electrophysiologists (EP) were collected (89% response rate). The CF-catheters used were Smart Touch, Biosense (53%), Tacticath, Saint-Jude Medical (13%), or both (26%). The power applied on the left atrial (LA) anterior (LAAW) and posterior (LAPW) wall was respectively 26–34 W (for 73% of the EP) and below 25 W (89% of the EP). Most of the EP used nominal parameters of Visitag (40%). Seventy-five percent of the users did not use automatic display of the impedance drop. For the Tacticath users, 56% used a target value of 400 gs on the LAAW and 300 to 400 gs on the LAPW. Lesion size index was anecdotically used ( Fig. 1 ). The parameters used for CF-guided ablation are widely variable among the different operators. Further prospective studies are needed to validate the targets for automatic annotation of the RF applications.
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