Consideration of patient safety using real-time 3D TEE during la pulmonary vein ablation

摘要

In a recent issue of iJACC, Faletra et al. (1) reported real-time (RT) 3-dimensional (3D) transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) imaging of the left atrium (LA) and pulmonary veins (PVs) and described examples of its use during catheter-based PV ablation. RT 3D TEE may offer a useful tool to enhance our understanding and evaluation of cardiac structures during percutaneous treatment procedures. However, we disagree with Faletra et al. (1) to forecast that RT 3D TEE may become a useful complementary imaging modality in anatomy-driven ra-diofrequency (RF) PV isolation. We consider that patient safety is a serious concern with using RT 3D TEE during RF LA posterior wall (PW) and PV ablation.