Analysis of a novel expanded tip wire (ETW) antenna for microwave ablation of cardiac arrhythmias

• Published in: IEEE transactions on biomedical engineering Vol. 50; no. 7; pp. 890 - 899
• Main Authors: Heng-Mao Chiu, Mohan, A.S., Weily, A.R., Guy, D.J.R., Ross, D.L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.07.2003; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Animals; Atrial fibrillation; Atrial Fibrillation - physiopathology; Atrial Fibrillation - therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Catheter Ablation - instrumentation; Catheter Ablation - methods; Catheters; Cattle; Coaxial cables; Computer-Aided Design; Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; Electrodes; Electromagnetic heating; Equipment Design - methods; Feasibility Studies; Finite difference methods; Heart Ventricles - physiopathology; Heart Ventricles - radiation effects; Hot Temperature - therapeutic use; In vitro; Medical sciences; Microwave antennas; Microwaves - therapeutic use; Numerical models; Radiometry - methods; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Therapy, Computer-Assisted - methods; Time domain analysis; Wire; microwave antenna; microwave ablation; Atrial fibrillation; specific absorption rate; catheter ablation; cardiac ablation; finite-difference time-domain
• ISSN: 0018-9294; 1558-2531
• DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2003.813541

A novel expanded tip wire (ETW) catheter antenna is proposed for microwave ablation for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). The antenna is designed as an integral part of coaxial cable so that it can be inserted via a 6F catheter. A numerical model based on the rotationally symmetric finite-difference time-domain technique incorporating the generalized perfectly matched layer as the absorbing boundary condition has been utilized to accurately model the interaction between the antenna and the myocardium. Numerical and in-vitro experimental results are presented for specific absorption rate, return loss and heating pattern produced by the antenna. Both numerical modeling and in-vitro experimentation show that the proposed ETW antenna produces a well-defined electric field distribution that provides continuous long and linear lesions for the treatment of AF.