Anatomically Based Ablation of Left Ventricular Summit Premature Ventricular Complexes Guided by Intracardiac Echocardiography

Catheter ablation of premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) arising from the left ventricular summit (LVS) presents technical challenges due to the regional anatomy and frequent intramural site of origin (SOO). Intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) and the CARTOSOUND^® (Biosense Webster, Diamond Bar, CA, USA) module allow the operator to directly reconstruct and visualize the dimensions and orientation of the LVS live and present it in relation to neighboring structures. We retrospectively reviewed consecutive cases between January 2021 and December 2022 of patients undergoing PVC ablation for a presumed LVS origin. The LVS was reconstructed by creating a three-dimensional representation of the left ventricular septum, using two-dimensional ICE sections. The earliest site in each chamber was tagged on the reconstructed LVS, and the presumed SOO was localized using a geometrical center point from all sites. Ablation was first delivered to the earliest site, except when the presence of coronary branches precluded radiofrequency delivery within the great cardiac vein. Of 20 patients (8 women, 62.4 ± 7.1 years old) with a presumed LVS origin, 12 had PVC recurrence within the monitoring period after the initial ablation for 192.5 ± 37.2 s at the earliest site. Among them, earliest activation was seen at the sinus of Valsalva (SoV), coronary venous system (CVS), and left ventricular endocardium (LVE) in four, six, and two patients, respectively. Using the reconstructed LVS, the anatomically closest site to the SOO was identified in the SoV, CVS, and LVE in four, two, and six cases, respectively. Throughout the study period (14.5 months; range, 9.3-19.7 months), 17 patients (85%) had complete elimination of PVCs as evaluated by 24-h event monitors at the 12-month visit. In 50% of cases, among patients in whom ablation at the earliest signal was unsuccessful, the site of successful ablation did not correlate with the second earliest signal or had no identifiable signal during initial activation mapping. The reconstructed LVS not only guided activation mapping but also identified sites proximal to the center point that had either a late activation signal, a low-amplitude signal, or no signal at all.