Results:
Each group included 25 patients. There were no significant differences in the baseline characteristics. All procedures were performed successfully with the use of conscious sedation and ICE guidance. There was a significant reduction in overall procedure time, fluoroscopy time, and time taken from trans-septal puncture to “ICE in LA”. The overall procedure time was 54.5 ±20.3 min in the conventional group vs 43.6 ± 4.7 min in the experimental group.  The fluoroscopy time was 13.2 ±11.2 min in the conventional group vs 6.1 ±1.6 min in the experimental group.  The transseptal puncture to ICE in LA time was 5.2 ±7.5 min in the conventional group vs 2.9 ± 1.2 min in the experimental group (Table 1). There was no difference in the size of the acute residual interatrial shunt as measured via ICE. There were no acute procedural complications.
Imaging follow up was available on all patients. Timing of imaging was variable between 30-60 days. There was no difference in size of iatrogenic ASD in either group. There was one device related thrombus in control group and one patient with 2 mm peri device leak in the experimental group.