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.