A computational comparison of radiofrequency and pulsed field ablation in terms of lesion morphology in the cardiac chamber

Pulsed Field Ablation (PFA) has been developed over the last years as a novel electrical ablation technique for treating cardiac arrhythmias. It is based on irreversible electroporation which is a non-thermal phenomenon innocuous to the extracellular matrix and, because of that, PFA is considered to be safer than the reference technique, Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA). However, possible differences in lesion morphology between both techniques have been poorly studied. Simulations including electric, thermal and fluid physics were performed in a simplified model of the cardiac chamber which, in essence, consisted of a slab of myocardium with blood in motion on the top. Monopolar and bipolar catheter configurations were studied. Different blood velocities and catheter orientations were assayed. RFA was simulated assuming a conventional temperature-controlled approach. The PFA treatment was assumed to consist in a sequence of 20 biphasic bursts (100 µs duration). Simulations indicate that, for equivalent lesion depths, PFA lesions are wider, larger and more symmetrical than RFA lesions for both catheter configurations. RFA lesions display a great dependence on blood velocity while PFA lesions dependence is negligible on it. For the monopolar configuration, catheter angle with respect to the cardiac surface impacted both ablation techniques but in opposite sense. The orientation of the catheter with respect to blood flow direction only affected RFA lesions. In this study, substantial morphological differences between RFA and PFA lesions were predicted numerically. Negligible dependence of PFA on blood flow velocity and direction is a potential important advantage of this technique over RFA.