School of Medicine Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-30-2024
Abstract
Cryoablation is a well-established medical procedure for surgically treating atrial fibrillation. Cryothermal catheter therapy induces cellular necrosis by freezing the insides of pulmonary veins, with the goal of disrupting abnormal electrical heart signals. Nevertheless, tissue damage induced by cold temperatures may also lead to other complications after cardiac surgery. In this sense, the simulation of catheter ablation can provide safer environments for training and the performance of cryotherapy interventions. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a novel approach to help better understand how temperature rates can affect this procedure by using computer tools to develop a simulation framework to predict lesion size and determine optimal temperature conditions for reducing the risk of major complications. The results showed that a temperature profile of around −40 °C caused less penetration, reduced necrotic damage, and smaller lesion size in the tissue. Instead, cryotherapy close to −60 °C achieved a greater depth of temperature flow inside the tissue and a larger cross-section area of the lesion. With further development and validation, the framework could represent a cost-effective strategy for providing personalized modeling, better planning of cryocatheter-based treatment, and preventing surgical complications.
Recommended Citation
Rivera, S. I., Bernal, C. P., Martínez-Peláez, R., Robledo-Nolasco, R., De León-Larios, G., Félix, V. G., Ostos, R., Maestre, G. E., Melgarejo, J. D., & Mena, L. J. (2024). Computer Simulation of Catheter Cryoablation for Pulmonary Vein Isolation. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 12(15), 1508. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12151508
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Healthcare
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12151508
Academic Level
faculty
Mentor/PI Department
Neuroscience
Comments
© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).