Background: Transcatheter electrical ablation has been used in the treatment of arrhythmias, and most experience has been obtained by ablating the normal atrioventricular conduction system. Less information is available on ablation of atrioventricular accessory pathways.
Methods and results: Catheter ablation of overt accessory pathways was attempted in 135 patients with 142 distinct pathways, including 21 right parietal or anteroseptal, 47 posteroseptal, and 74 left lateral pathways. We sought to identify the type and value of electrophysiological parameters associated with successful ablation outcome. For this purpose, the unipolar recording mode was used in addition to bipolar anterograde and retrograde parameters. With a mean follow-up of 16 +/- 6 (mean +/- SD) months, fulguration was successful in eliminating preexcitation in 129 patients (96%), including all seven with two distinct accessory pathways. The first ablation attempt was successful in 110 patients, and two or more attempts were performed in 25 patients. Bipolar electrograms associated with success of fulguration showed a shorter atrioventricular conduction time (40 +/- 13 versus 53 +/- 17 msec, p less than 0.0001) and an earlier main ventricular deflection relative to delta wave onset (-1.7 +/- 10 versus 5 +/- 7 msec, p less than 0.001) than electrograms associated with unsuccessful outcome. The only parameter dealing with retrograde conduction (i.e., ventriculoatrial conduction time during reciprocating tachycardia) was not predictive (86 +/- 17 versus 93 +/- 17 msec). Neither was the atrial to ventricular electrogram amplitude ratio. Two unipolar parameters were found to be predictive of successful outcome: 1) The three different patterns PQS, P-QS, P-rS of unipolar waves recorded at the annulus were associated with respective success rates of 97%, 78%, and 55% (p less than 0.001). 2) Intrinsic deflection timing occurred -4 +/- 8 and 6 +/- 7 msec relative to delta wave onset in successful attempts and in failures, respectively (p less than 0.001). Logistic regression analysis revealed a single independent factor predictive of success, the unipolar pattern (p = 0.03), with an odds ratio of 7:1 (PQS pattern versus P-rS pattern). In the group of 18 patients who underwent a first unsuccessful but second successful attempt, comparison of electrograms revealed no difference in the ventriculoatrial conduction time but a significant improvement in anterograde parameters and unipolar pattern distribution.
Conclusions: Some distinctive electrogram patterns concerning anterograde conduction are associated with success of accessory pathway fulguration. The unfiltered unipolar recording mode (PQS pattern) contributes significantly to optimizing the accuracy of accessory pathway localization.