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.