Use of intracardiac echocardiography in the electrophysiology laboratory.

The intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) offers a detailed visualization of the cardiac structures, in association with hemodynamic information, allowing the precise and real-time positioning of the catheters, decreasing the time of exposure to fluoroscopy and the monitoring of acute complications during the electrophysiological procedure (i.e., formation of thrombi, pericardial effusion, cardiac tamponade), Consequently, its use has progressively increased, mainly in the ablation of atrial fibrillation and ventricular arrhythmias. It has shown to be very useful in the ablation of atrial fibrillation by providing anatomic data on the left atrium and pulmonary veins, helping in transseptal punctures, locating the ostium and antrum of the pulmonary veins, monitoring tissue injury during radiofrequency (RF) use, preventing esophageal injury by monitoring the injuries caused by RF on the left atrial posterior wall and assessing the pulmonary vein flow.