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Fiberoptic Contact‐Force Sensing Electrophysiological Catheters: How Precise Is the Technology?
Author(s) -
BOURIER FELIX,
GIANNI CAROLA,
DARE MATTHEW,
DEISENHOFER ISABEL,
HESSLING GABRIELE,
REENTS TILKO,
MOHANTY SANGHAMITRA,
TRIVEDI CHINTAN,
NATALE ANDREA,
ALAHMAD AMIN
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of cardiovascular electrophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.193
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1540-8167
pISSN - 1045-3873
DOI - 10.1111/jce.13100
Subject(s) - contact force , deflection (physics) , perpendicular , catheter , force transducer , biomedical engineering , deflection angle , medicine , acoustics , optics , surgery , physics , geometry , mathematics , quantum mechanics
Fiberoptic Contact‐Force Sensing Technology Background Contact‐force (CF) sensing catheters are increasingly used in electrophysiological procedures due to their efficacy and safety profile. As data about the accuracy of fiberoptic CF technology are scarce, we sought to quantify it using in vitro experiments. Methods and Results A force sensor was built with a flexible membrane to allow exact reference force measurements for each set of experiments. A TactiCath Quartz (TCQ) ablation catheter was brought in contact with the force sensor membrane in order to compare the TCQ force measurements to sensor reference force measurements. Measurements were performed at different tip angles (0°/perpendicular contact, 45°, 90°/parallel contact), with fluid irrigation, different degrees of catheter deflection, and using a sheath. The accuracy of the TCQ force measurements was 0.9 ± 0.9 g (0°), 0.8 ± 0.8 g (45°) and 1.2 ± 1.3 g (90°), 0.8 ± 0.7 g (irrigation), 0.8 ± 0.8 g (deflection), and 0.8 ± 0.9 g (sheath); this was not significantly different among all experimental conditions. The precision was ≤3.8%. Conclusion CF measurements using a fiberoptic sensing technology show a high level of accuracy and precision, without being significantly influenced by tip angle, fluid irrigation, catheter deflection or use of a sheath.