A
system for ablating tissue includes a
catheter having an elongate body, with at least one
ablation element (e.g., RF
electrode) and at least one acoustic
transducer located within the body's tip region. The
transducer receives acoustic signals from
proximate the tip region. The
system also includes a monitoring unit coupled to the
transducer to interpret the received acoustic signals as data regarding at least one therapeutic parameter (e.g., pre-pop detection,
lesion making progress, tissue interface detection, tissue
contact force, tissue contact establishment, bubble
spatial distribution, bubble depth, bubble size, bubble size distribution, tissue interface distance, tissue
interface position, tissue attenuation,
tissue thickness,
lesion spectral
fingerprint). The monitoring unit is operable to provide feedback to a practitioner, such as graphical, audible, and / or haptic output of sensed data, and may also be operable to control operation of the at least one
ablation element in response thereto.