Intracardiac echocardiography in the interventional catheterization laboratory: Preliminary experience with a novel, phased-array transducer

To date, intracardiac ultrasonographic guidance of interventional procedures has been limited.(1,2) The major limitation has been the poor depth of penetration of the transducers. Either catheters have had transducers with lower frequency (and thus enhanced depth penetration) that require mounting on catheters with large-bore caliber or the catheters have had smaller, higher frequency transducers that make visualization of left-sided structures impossible with the imaging catheter in the right side of the heart. Also, except for the phased-array catheter of our study, available catheters cannot provide hemodynamic assessment because they lack Doppler capabilities. Recently, a phased-array intracardiac echocardiographic catheter was introduced that has a range of frequencies (5.5 to 10 MHz) and full Doppler capability (pulsed,continuous-wave, color flow, and tissue Doppler).(3,4) Thus, this new generation imaging catheter may overcome the limitations of other available intracardiac catheters. We present preliminary results of the utility of this novel intracardiac echocardiographic catheter during interventional procedures in the cardiac catheterization laboratory.