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Use of intracardiac echocardiography in mapping and ablation of atrial tachycardias
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Jonathan M. Kalman.
Department of Cardiology, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
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Introduction
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Intracardiac echocardiography is emerging as
a potentially useful tool during radiofrequency ablation procedures. There are a number
of potential benefits of direct endocardial visualization during radiofrequency ablation including:
1) precise anatomic localization of the ablation catheter tip in relation to important endocardial
structures which cannot be visualized with fluoroscopy; 2) reduction in fluoroscopy time; 3)
evaluation of catheter tip tissue contact; 4) confirmation of lesion formation and identification
of lesion size and continuity; 5) immediate identification of complications and 6) as a research
tool to help in understanding the critical role played by specific endocardial structures in
arrhythmogenesis. This article will briefly review existing data and speculate as to possible future
roles for intracardiac echocardiography in interventional electrophysiology.
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Key Words
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