Patent ID: 7824341

Claim:
A method of identifying the fossa ovalis in a patient, the method comprising: (a) providing an electrophysiology catheter including at least a pair of electrodes coupled to a portion of the catheter; (b) advancing a guidewire through a lumen within the catheter and into a patient's heart; (c) deploying the catheter over the guidewire so as to position the electrodes against the surface tissue of the interatrial septum of the patient; (d) acquiring one of a plurality of a unipolar electrogram and a bipolar electrogram of the surface tissue of the interatrial septum while moving the electrodes to a plurality of positions against the surface tissue of the interatrial septum; and (e) identifying the fossa ovalis on the basis of at least one of the following parameters: a unipolar voltage reduction, a signal fractionation, a broadened signal, a reduced signal slew rate, a reduced local myocardial impedance, an increased phase angle and an increased pacing threshold.