ArticleJournal of interventional cardiac electrophysiology : an international journal of arrhythmias and pacing2026
Multi-modality imaging assessment of microbubbles and cerebral emboli in left ventricular pulsed field ablation.
Article in Journal of interventional cardiac electrophysiology : an international journal of arrhythmias and pacing, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Incidence of silent cerebral lesions during pulsed field ablation for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.Annals of medicine · 2026Trial
- Contemporary Trends in Pulsed Field Ablation for Cardiac Arrhythmias.Journal of cardiovascular development and disease · 2024Review
- Ablation Strategies for Persistent Atrial Fibrillation: Beyond the Pulmonary Veins.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Opportunities and Challenges in Catheter-Based Irreversible Electroporation for Ventricular Tachycardia.Pathophysiology : the official journal of the International Society for Pathophysiology · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPulsed field ablation (PFA) may have a superior safety profile compared to other technologies, but it has the potential to cause gaseous microbubbles (MB), which may be associated with cerebral emboli. Limited relative safety data has been published regarding PFA in the left ventricle (LV).
methodsHealthy and chronic myocardial infarction (MI) swine underwent PFA (monopolar, biphasic, 25 Amps) in the LV using an irrigated focal catheter under intra-cardiac echocardiography (ICE) guidance for MB monitoring. Two control swine received air MBs through the lumen of the ablation catheter. Swine underwent brain MRI before and after PFA (or control air MB injection). Gross pathology and histology of brains with abnormal MRI findings were performed.
resultsFour healthy and 5 chronic MI swine underwent 124 left ventricular PFA applications. No PFA-related MB formation was noted on ICE. Both control swine developed multiple acute emboli in the thalamus and caudate on DWI, ADC, and FLAIR brain MRI images in response to air MB injection. Of the 9 PFA swine, there were no abnormalities on ADC or FLAIR images. There was one hyperintense focus in the left putamen on the DWI trace image, but the absence of ADC or FLAIR affirmation suggested it was artifact. Gross pathology and histopathology of this region did not detect any abnormalities.
conclusionsFocal monopolar biphasic PFA of both healthy and chronically infarcted left ventricular myocardium does not generate any MB or cerebral emboli observable on ICE and brain MRI.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.