The Efficiency and Safety of Multidetector Computed Tomography-guided Transseptal Puncture During Atrial Fibrillation Catheter Ablation

Background: Transseptal puncture (TSP) is a crucial technique for catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF). Although intracardiac echo (ICE) facilitates a safe and accurate TSP, it is not widely used in developing countries because of the expense. This study evaluated the efficiency and safety of a novel cardiac multidetector computed tomography (MDCT)-guided TSP during AF catheter ablation.

Methods: The study consisted of two cohorts. In the index cohort, TSP procedure was performed under the guidance of ICE, and we recorded the angulation of right anterior oblique of X-ray projection. In the validation cohort, we compared the efficiency and safety of TSP guided by MDCT-calculated angulation with propensity-score-matched patients who underwent TSP guided by ICE.

Results: We included 50 patients in the index cohort, and the mean angles of interatrial septum (IAS) measured from MDCT and ICE were 34.8 ± 6.3 and 35.1 ± 6.5, respectively. In the validation cohort, 376 patients were enrolled in the MDCT-guided group and ICE-guided group. Both groups had 1 case of cardiac tamponade. The mean axial plane angle was 35.46 ± 6.17 degrees, which was not influenced by age, gender, BMI, and LA size, while a moderate positive linear correlation between EF and the axial plane angle (  = 0.14,  = .006).

Conclusion: Cardiac MDCT can provide a clear vision of IAS orientation, and provide the appropriate RAO angle and height for TSP. The efficiency and safety of our MDCT-guided TSP were comparable to ICE-guided TSP, which may serve as an alternative method for TSP with ICE unavailable.