Correlation between the lesion size and the catheter contact angles
Several studies have demonstrated that the catheter contact angle is an important factor in lesion creation.[16][17][18] In an in vitro study, Calzolar et al. reported [17] that the superficial lesion widths were increased by shifting the catheter angle from the perpendicular to the parallel orientation, and the intratissue maximal lesion widths were greater with an oblique catheter orientation than with a perpendicular position using a 3.5-mm tip, open-irrigated, CF-sensing catheter (TactiCath™ SE; Abbott, St. Paul, MN, USA). Conversely, they also reported that the lesion depths were not different with different catheter orientations. In the present study, the maximum lesion widths and surface widths were also smaller at 90° than at 30°, whereas there were no differences in lesion depth. Although the distal tip lengths of the ablation catheters are different (4.5 mm in INTELLANAV MiFi™ OI, 4.0 mm in INTELLANAV STABLEPOINT™, and 3.5 mm in TactiCath™ SE), resulting in different sizes of the lesion creation,[19][20] their impact on the catheter angles are consistent with a previous study.