Adverse event rates
As shown in Table 1, no char formation was observed but 72/540 (13.3%)
(n=12 with FlexAbilityTM SE and n=60 with
TactiCathTM SE, P<0.001) steam-pops were
observed. At both 30W (1.1% vs. 8.9%, p=0.034) and 40W (12.2% vs.
57.8%, p<0.001) settings, use of the
FlexAbilityTM SE catheter significantly reduced the
incidence of steam-pops.
As shown in Table 4, power ≥40W (Odds ratio (OR) 53.0,
p<0.001), contact force≥25g (OR 2.1, p=0.047), RF duration
>30s (OR 8.0, p<0.001), parallel angle (OR 2.1,
p=0.045), and impedance drop ≥20Ω (OR 3.0, p=0.005) remained as positive
predictors of steam-pop but use of the FlexAbilityTMSE catheter (OR 0.07, p<0.001) was negatively associated with
steam-pops by multivariate analysis.