Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41636951›Full record

ArticleJournal of interventional cardiac electrophysiology : an international journal of arrhythmias and pacing2026

Thermal preconditioning of targeted tissue enhances pulsed field ablation lesions.

Daniel Campos-Villarreal, Maxwell Coll, Logan McClennen, Chieko Imamura, Camila C Aragón, Andres F Miranda-Arboleda, Jorge E Romero, Nathaniel A Steiger, William H Sauer

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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 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Daniel Campos-VillarrealCardiac Arrhythmia Service, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Maxwell CollCardiac Arrhythmia Service, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Logan McClennenCardiac Arrhythmia Service, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Chieko ImamuraCardiac Arrhythmia Service, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Camila C AragónCardiac Arrhythmia Service, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Andres F Miranda-ArboledaCardiac Arrhythmia Service, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Jorge E RomeroCardiac Arrhythmia Service, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Nathaniel A SteigerCardiac Arrhythmia Service, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
William H SauerCardiac Arrhythmia Service, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. wsauer@bwh.harvard.edu.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionPulsed field ablation (PFA) is a cardiac ablation modality that induces cell death via irreversible electroporation (IRE) rather than thermal injury. Intrinsic biophysical tissue properties - including temperature and conductivity- can influence PFA lesion formation, however, this phenomenon is not thoroughly characterized.

objectiveTo evaluate the impact of thermal preconditioning on PFA lesion characteristics using a controlled in vitro model.

methodsTwenty-millimeter-thick Solanum tuberosum potato slabs were assigned to one of five preconditioning groups: cold (7-10 °C), control (21.5-23 °C), room-temperature soaked (immersed in water at 21.5-23 °C), dry-heated (40 °C), and wet-heated (40 °C water-soaked). Pre-ablation surface temperature was recorded. A monophasic unipolar PFA application was delivered (1750 V, 20 µs pulses, 3 pulses, 1-second interval) using a 3.5 mm electrode catheter. Lesions were stained with 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) and measured.

resultsPre-heating the tissue to 40 °C produced markedly larger lesions than control. Dry-heated samples produced a mean lesion diameter of 34.1 ± 1.7 mm and wet-heated 35.0 ± 1.9 mm, vs. 25.3 ± 2.0 mm in controls (p < 0.001). Lesion depth was also greater in heated tissue (wet-heated 12.23 ± 0.76 mm vs. control 10.7 ± 1.3 mm, p = 0.017). In contrast, cooling the tissue to < 10 °C reduced lesion diameter (23.1 ± 2.3 mm) and depth (9.3 ± 1.0 mm), significantly smaller than controls (both p < 0.01). Room-temperature soaking (RT-soaked) alone did not produce significant change in lesion dimensions.

conclusionsIn this in vitro model, thermal preconditioning significantly alters PFA lesion formation. Increasing the tissue temperature prior to ablation markedly increases lesion diameter and depth, possibly by lowering the electroporation threshold. These findings suggest that tissue temperature is a tunable factor influencing PFA efficacy.

Indexed as

Solanum tuberosumElectroporationHot TemperatureIn Vitro TechniquesIrreversible Electroporation TherapyBiophysicsCatheter ablationElectroporationHeart ventricleIn vitroPulse field ablation

Identifiers

PMID41636951

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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.