earticle

영어

Catheter ablation along the posterior aspect of the left atrium has a small but real risk of esophageal perforation. This left atrioesophageal fistula formation is associated with multiple gaseous and/or septic embolic events causing cerebral and myocardial damage. The main objective is to mathematically model the ablation associated with delivery of radiofrequency (RF) energy to treat atrial fibrillation in order to control the temperature rise in the esophageal lumen. We model the heat exchange problem in a time-dependent multi-region for the catheter ablation therapy, with particular application to RF thermal ablation on the atrial tissue. From the selected set of geometric and operational parameters, benchmark calculations result in graphical representations. The proposed solutions enable whether quantitative or qualitative the study of temperature behavior whenever in space or in time. These enhance the physical understanding of what factors can affect the esophageal temperature and how to most accurately measure it. The model is sufficiently explicit to be, in turn, applied to different performances of one ablation procedure, or even to other thermal techniques.