Thermal field and tissue damage analysis of cryoballoon ablation for atrial fibrillation

Cryoballoon ablation has emerged as a significant therapeutic technique to isolate pulmonary veins for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). The temporal and spatial variation of the thermal field in clinical ablation is uncharted and cannot be measured in real time. Finite element analysis is used to study the temperature filed in the process of tissue cooling and lesion formation within the myocardium. In this paper, we established the 2D axisymmetric simplified model of pulmonary vein antrum and the temperature distribution was obtained by solving the Pennes equation coupled with the phase change model. Furthermore, the tissue damage integral analysis was adopted in our research which gives an indicator of tissue injury during the ablation. In order to verify the reliability of the model, in-vitro experiments were conducted using a porcine heart and clinical research conclusions were also quoted as a reference.