Fiberoptic Contact-Force Sensing Electrophysiological Catheters: How Precise Is the 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.