title: Biophysical and electrical aspects of radiofrequency catheter ablation.
abstract: Radiofrequency (RF) catheter ablation is becoming increasingly accepted as the treatment of choice for definitive management of a variety of supraventricular arrhythmias in selected patients. Many interdependent variables may affect the amount of tissue heating at the target site. Power controlled RF devices may fail to ablate the targeted tissue due to a mismatch between the actual resistance of the electrode-tissue interface and the internal resistance of the RF generator.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  the use of temperature controlled RF devices may optimize power delivery to the tissue and therefore facilitate radiofrequency catheter ablation procedures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology of the St.-Jozef Hospital, Ostend, Belgium.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Van Haesendonck
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sinnaeve
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Willems
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vandenbulcke
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stroobandt
mesh_terms: D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000601:surgery; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D017115:Catheter Ablation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D017097:Electric Impedance; D004560:Electricity; D006801:Humans; D013696:Temperature