IMR Press / RCM / Volume 25 / Issue 3 / DOI: 10.31083/j.rcm2503106
Open Access Review
Pulsed Field Ablation and Neurocardiology: Inert to Efferents or Delayed Destruction?
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1 Banner University Medicine, Banner Health, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
2 Sarver Heart Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA
*Correspondence: ichinyere@arizona.edu (Ikeotunye Royal Chinyere)
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2024, 25(3), 106; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm2503106
Submitted: 30 September 2023 | Revised: 11 January 2024 | Accepted: 26 January 2024 | Published: 14 March 2024
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cardiac Catheterization: Clinical Updates and Novel Technologies)
Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: The therapeutic use of irreversible electroporation in clinical cardiac laboratories, termed pulsed field ablation (PFA), is gaining pre-regulatory approval momentum among rhythm specialists for the mitigation of arrhythmogenic substrate without increased procedural risk. Though electroporation has been utilized in other branches of science and medicine for decades, apprehension regarding all the possible off-target complications of PFA have yet to be thoroughly identified and investigated. Methods: This brief review will summarize the preclinical and adult clinical data published to date on PFA’s effects on the autonomic system that interplays closely with the cardiovascular system, termed the neurocardiovascular system. These data are contrasted with the findings of efferent destruction secondary to thermal cardiac ablation modalities, namely radiofrequency energy and liquid nitrogen-based cryoablation. Results: In vitro neurocardiology findings, in vivo neurocardiology findings, and clinical neurocardiology findings to date nearly unanimously support the preservation of a critical mass of perineural structures and extracellular matrices to allow for long-term nervous regeneration in both cardiac and non-cardiac settings. Conclusions: Limited histopathologic data exist for neurocardiovascular outcomes post-PFA. Neuron damage is not only theoretically possible, but has been observed with irreversible electroporation, however regeneration is almost always concomitantly described.

Keywords
irreversible electroporation
cardiac
neurons
autonomic nervous system
ganglia
plexi
nervous system
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