title: Wire- and needle potentials facilitating transseptal puncture.
abstract: Transseptal puncture for left heart interventions became a routine procedure guided by fluoroscopy and echocardiography. The use of intracardiac potentials derived from the sheath-transseptal-needle/guidewire-combination may provide helpful information to increase safety of this procedure.
  
  
  
  We recorded the intracardiac potentials from the sheath-transseptal-needle/guidewire-combination during the transseptal puncture procedure in 31 consecutive patients (mean age 67.2±8.2years; 21 in sinus rhythm, 10 in atrial fibrillation) designated for ablation of atrial fibrillation by the Cryo-balloon ® technique (Medtronic, Minnesota, USA). The EP-Navigator ® 3-D-image integration tool (Philips Healthcare, Hamburg, Germany) was used for visualization of the device position in relation to the cardiac structures. Typical and reproducible potentials could be derived in all patients for the different device localizations at transseptal puncture procedure. Especially the transition from the muscular interatrial septum into the fossa ovalis could be easily depicted by the changes of both morphology and magnitude of the atrial signal (6.1±2.3mV in sinus rhythm [SR]/3.5±0.9mV in atrial fibrillation [AF] at the muscular interatrial septum and 0.5±0.2mV in SR/0.5±0.1mV in AF in the fossa ovalis).
  
  
  
  The crucial steps of a transseptal procedure can be verified by typical changes (morphology and amplitude) of the intracardiac signals derived from the sheath-transseptal-needle/guidewire-combination in patients with sinus rhythm as well as in atrial fibrillation.
authors.affiliation: Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Department of Medicine III. Electronic address: konstantin.heinroth@uk-halle.de.
authors.forename: Konstantin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Heinroth
authors.affiliation: Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Department of Medicine III.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hartkopf
authors.affiliation: Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Department of Medicine III.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Plehn
authors.affiliation: Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Department of Medicine III.
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wilhelm
authors.affiliation: Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Medical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Informatics.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Unverzagt
authors.affiliation: Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Department of Medicine III.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frantz
authors.affiliation: Sana Klinikum Lichtenberg, Department of Medicine II, Berlin.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schirdewan
mesh_terms: D018780:Body Surface Potential Mapping / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004566:Electrodes; D005260:Female; D006346:Heart Septum / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009339:Needles; D011677:Punctures / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Far field potential; Transseptal puncture; Unipolar intracardiac recording