Decremental pulmonary venous pulse propagation: impact for catheter ablation in focal atrial fibrillation.

Background: Electrical isolation of pulmonary veins (PV's) is crucial to achieve success in catheter ablation for trigger elimination in focal atrial fibrillation (AF). To guide ostial PV radiofrequency (RF) delivery, it is necessary to identify the electrical breakthrough (EBT) between PV and left atrium. For this purpose, coronary sinus (CS) fixed rate pacing is commonly used.

Circumferential pulmonary vein mapping and ablation in focal atrial fibrillation: single catheter technique.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) can be cured in a subgroup of patients performing catheter ablation and eliminate trigger arrhythmias mainly originating in the pulmonary veins (PV's).

Case Report: This case report describes the use of a novel catheter design combining both, circumferential mapping and radiofrequency delivery capabilities to perform pulmonary vein ablation in patients with focal AF. It could be demonstrated that this catheter was able to eliminate pulmonary vein potentials in a single left atrial catheter technique without acute evidence for PV stenosis.