Currently, radiofrequency (RF) energy is the most widely accepted and used method for arrythmia ablation. However, RF ablation has potential disadvantages such as endocardial disruption, charring, platelet activation and thrombus formation, Alternative energy sources have been proposed for catheter ablation. Cryoablation, microwave, laser and ultrasound may be able to create longer, deeper, and more controlled lesions. Irreversible electroporation is a nonthermal ablative tool that uses direct electrical pulses to create irreversible membrane pores and eventual cell death. At present there is no commercially avaiable cardiac eletroporation cathater. But limited animal studies utilizing modified standart ablation cathaters have been reported. Here we present design of a lasso electroporation cathater.

Defibrillators are widely used to terminate life-threatening arrhythmias. If defibrillator shock-induced transmembrane potentials are large enough, they can cause irreversible tissue damage due to electroporation. We use 10-polar lasso cathater. Positive and negative poles of all electrode pairs were connected in parallel (Figure 1A). And we connected these poles to transcutaneous pacing patch. Direct current electricity transmitted to lasso cathater when we applied shock from defibrillator paddles to the transcutaneous pacing patch(Figure 1B). We test our cathater in saline solution. Whenever we applied shock, bubbles were seen around the electrode pairs which mean our lasso electroporation cathater is functioning properly(Figure 1C).

To our knowledge this is the first lasso electroporation cathater reported in literature. We applied local ethic committee for further animal studies. Future studies will establish the efficacy of this new and promising technology.