Clinical use of AcuNav diagnostic ultrasound catheter imaging during left heart radiofrequency ablation and transcatheter closure procedures

Percutaneous patent foramen ovale and atrial septal defect closure in adults: Results and device comparison in 100 consecutive implants at a single center

“…Transesophageal echocardiography provides excellent procedural guidance, but the added time and morbidity associated with general anesthesia and endotracheal intubation are significant limitations of this technique. Our experience confirms that ICE can provide equivalent or superior imaging, guidance of the procedure, and assessment of the adequacy of closure with reduced procedure time and greater patient comfort [3,9,21]. More CardioSeal devices were utilized early in our experience, and we cannot exclude the possibility that the better echocardiographic contrast results achieved with the Amplatzer device resulted from a learning curve effect.…”

ST-segment elevation induced during the transseptal procedure for radiofrequency catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation

“…The risk of thromboembolic complications following pulmonary vein RF ablation has been previously emphasized [11]. Ren et al using an intracardiac diagnostic ultrasound catheter revealed thrombus formation on the sheath in the left atrium in two patients who underwent RF pulmonary vein isolation [12]. However, the meticulous care to prevent air entry into the left atrial sheath along with continuous irrigation of the sheath with heparinized saline minimizes the risk of air or thrombus embolism.…”

Detection of left atrial thrombus by intracardiac echocardiography in patients undergoing ablation of atrial fibrillation

“…The role of intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) to guide ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) and other complex arrhythmias is well recognized [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. However, the additional role of ICE in identifying an atrial thrombus immediately before ablation of AF is not well studied.…”