摘要:
Disclosed is a system for the detection of cardiac events that includes an implanted device called a cardiosaver, a physician's programmer and an external alarm system. The system is designed to provide early detection of cardiac events such as acute myocardial infarction or exercise induced myocardial ischemia caused by an increased heart rate or exertion. The system can also alert the patient with a less urgent alarm if a heart arrhythmia is detected. Using different algorithms, the cardiosaver can detect a change in the patient's electrogram that is indicative of a cardiac event within five minutes after it occurs and then automatically warn the patient that the event is occurring. To provide this warning, the system includes an internal alarm sub-system (internal alarm means) within the cardiosaver and/or an external alarm system (external alarm means) which are activated after the ST segment of the electrogram exceeds a preset threshold.
摘要:
Disclosed is an ostial stent positioner that has the form of a wire for most of its length and having a short cylinder with a longitudinal slit and expandable legs situated at the positioner's distal end. The slit cylinder with its attached wire acts as an introducer sheath to introduce a stent delivery system with a stent into the artery that is to be stented. A second aspect of the present invention is a method for accurately placing a stent at the ostium of an artery that would have an ostial stenosis. Examples of such arteries that have ostial stenoses are the right and left main coronary arteries, a saphenous vein graft as used in coronary bypass surgery and the renal arteries. Also disclosed are designs for the slit cylinder that provides a variable diameter so as to fit snugly within guiding catheters having different inside diameters.
摘要:
A stent delivery system for placing a stent within a vessel of a human body. The stent delivery system includes an elongated tube that extends for most of the length of the stent delivery system and is attached to a distal end of a proximal section of an inflatable balloon. A stent is then co-axially mounted on the inflatable balloon. A front section of the stent delivery system includes a small angle cone having a lubricious outer surface. The front section is then attached to a cylindrical distal portion of the balloon and has an outside diameter at the proximal end of the small angled cone which is approximately the same diameter as the outer diameter of the stent. A core wire extends within the inflatable balloon and further into the front section of the stent delivery system.
摘要:
The present invention uses sets of strut members where the most distal set of strut members is similar to that of most stents in that the plane of the distal set of strut members is perpendicular to the stent's longitudinal axis. The present invention has a multiplicity of circumferential sets of strut members, but only the distal set of strut members has its plane perpendicular to the stent's longitudinal axis. The more proximal sets of strut members are angulated, so that the plane of the most proximal set of strut members has a preset angle such as 30°, 45° or 60° relative to the stent's longitudinal axis. The stent could also be formed from or coated with a highly radiopaque material. Alternately, a radiopaque marker could be placed at the most proximal point of the angulated, side branch stent, for the stent has to be rotated by the clinician until the plane of the most proximal angulated set of strut members is situated to be approximately parallel to the plane of the ostium of the side branch. It is also envisioned to widen the diagonal sections of the most proximal circumferential set of strut members to increase their radiopacity as compared to the radiopacity of the more distal circumferential sets of strut members. This can assist the clinician who places the side branch stent to have it properly placed at the ostium of the side branch.
摘要:
Disclosed is an open cell stent that has adjacent sets of circumferential struts connected by means of highly flexible, undulating, connecting struts. To decrease outward flaring of the circumferential struts when the pre-deployed stent is advance through highly curved vessels, each unconnected strut of the sets of circumferential struts has a decreased longitudinal length as compared to the longitudinal length of the circumferential struts that are connected by the flexible connecting struts. To decrease the propensity for outward flaring of the end set of circumferential struts, the longitudinal length of the end set of circumferential struts is shorter than the longitudinal length of the interior set of circumferential struts. Enhanced features of the circumferential sets of strut members of the stent are also disclosed. Specifically, variable strut width for the curved sections and the diagonal sections of the circumferential sets of strut members can be employed to enhance the stents radial rigidity and to provide enhanced radiopacity of the end sets of strut members compared to the radiopacity of the interior sets of strut members.
摘要:
The present invention is a stent delivery system that uses a short section of a guide wire that is fixedly attached to a distal section of a balloon angioplasty catheter. By not having a guide wire that slides through the balloon of the balloon angioplasty catheter, the balloon on which the stent is mounted can have a reduced diameter. Therefore, the outside diameter of the undeployed stent mounted onto that balloon is also minimized. This provides a minimum profile, i.e., a minimum outside diameter, for the stent. A minimum profile at the distal section of the stent delivery system is highly advantageous for improving the percentage of cases that can be treated by direct stenting; i.e., without requiring pre-dilation of a stenosis.
摘要:
The present invention is a stent delivery catheter system for placing a stent within a stenosis in a vessel of a human body. The stent delivery catheter system utilizes a slideable sheath with a thin-walled distal portion that is situated coaxially over a stent that is placed onto a balloon located at the distal portion of a balloon angioplasty catheter. The distal end of a central portion of the sheath has an interior shoulder which is capable of exerting a distally directed push force on the balloon angioplasty catheter at a point that is just proximal to the stent. This push force is then transferred through the non-deployed stent to a gradually tapered, highly flexible, lubricity coated distal tip of the balloon angioplasty catheter. The structure of a continuous outer surface extending backward from the distal tip and onto the distal section of the sheath, plus the lubricity coating of the outer surfaces of the distal tip and the sheath, plus the increased stent delivery catheter system pushability provided by the sheath and the stent itself makes it possible for the stent delivery catheter system to be pushed through even very tight stenoses.
摘要:
A balloon catheter for irradiation with or without dilatation of an arterial stenosis has an inflatable balloon and a generally cylindrical, thin-walled, elastic radioactive source both located coaxially at a distal section of the balloon catheter. The elastic radioactive source is moved radially outward as a result of injection of an inflation fluid into the inflatable balloon thus placing the radioactive source in close proximity to the wall of a vessel of the human body into which the balloon catheter has been inserted.
摘要:
An expandable external radiopaque marker band is situated external to the balloon of a balloon angioplasty catheter typically at the balloon's longitudinal center. When the balloon is inflated to dilate an arterial stenosis, the external radiopaque marker band is moved radially outward by the balloon thereby forcing the external radiopaque marker band into the arterial wall. When the balloon is then deflated, the external radiopaque marker band remains in place against the wall of the dilated stenosis. The balloon angioplasty catheter can then be removed from the artery while the expanded external radiopaque marker band remains in place to indicate (typically) the center position of the dilated stenosis. The external radiopaque marker band is typically made from a dense, radiopaque metal such as tantalum, gold, platinum or an alloy of those dense metals.
摘要:
A single, integrated catheter is capable of performing balloon angioplasty followed by delivery of a stent without removing the catheter from the patient's body. In one embodiment, a balloon placed near the catheter's distal end is first used for pre-dilatation of a vascular stenosis. The catheter is then advanced until a stent placed within a stent containment cavity located just proximal to the balloon is placed within the dilated stenosis. An outer sheath is then pulled back which allows a self-expanding stent to be deployed radially outward. The balloon is then pulled back inside the stent and reinflared to embed the stent into the dilated stenosis. An alternative embodiment of the invention uses a side opening in the catheter located just proximal to the stent containment cavity as an entry port for a flexible guide wire thus providing a "rapid exchange" capability for the integrated catheter.