Eugene G. Kholmovski1, 2, Sathya Vijayakumar1, 2, Chris J. McGann2, 3, Nassir F. Marrouche2, 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
Radio-frequency ablation of the left atrium (LA) is effective for patients with atrial fibrillation. In this study, we have compared visibility of acute atrial lesions in late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) and double inversion recovery T2-weighted turbo spin echo (DIR-T2w-TSE) images performed immediately (< 2 hour) and the next day after RF ablation. Quantitative analysis and visual inspection of the images demonstrate that contrast between ablated regions of LA wall and surrounding tissues is significantly higher in immediately post-ablation images than in the next day post-ablation images. The obtained results indicate a fast physiological response of LA wall to injury.