Discussion
In this in vitro study, we evaluated the impact of the catheter contact angles on lesion formation, focusing on the LI parameters with different CFs in the 2 different LI-sensing ablation catheters. The major findings of our study are as follows: 1) the LI rose as CF increased, and the degrees of LI rise were not significantly different among the 3 catheter contact angles in the MiFi but it was lower at 90° with the STABLEPOINT than at 30°; 2) the LI drop at 90° was lower than at 30° for both ablation catheters; 3) the maximum lesion widths and surface widths were smaller at 90° than at 30°, whereas there were no differences in the lesion depths for both ablation catheters, 4) the actual value of the LI drops by the RF application were well correlated with the lesion sizes for each catheter angle, and 5) the %LI drops were predictable for lesion formation irrespective of the catheter angles for both ablation catheters.