Eugene G. Kholmovski1,2, Sathya Vijayakumar1,2,
Chris McGann, 2,3, Nassir F. Marrouche, 2,3
1UCAIR, Department of Radiology,
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; 2CARMA
Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; 3Department
of Cardiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
Imaging
protocol has been developed for assessment of acute atrial injury caused by
RF ablation by 3T MRI. The protocol has been optimized and applied to study
50 immediately post-ablation cases. The main observations are the following:
1. Significant edema was detected not only in the regions subjected to RF
energy (pulmonary veins ostia, posterior wall, septum) but also in distant
regions (anterior wall). 2. LGE images demonstrate heterogeneous appearance
of LA wall in the regions subjected to RF energy. Significant areas of these
regions has minimal enhancement.