摘要:
A “tracker system” that includes electrical leads which are part of an implanted cardiotracker plus external equipment that includes external alarm and a physician's programmer. The tracker system is designed to monitor the degradation of a patient's cardiovascular condition from one or more causes, These causes include the rejection of a transplanted heart and/or the progression of a stenosis in a coronary artery. As one or more stenoses in a coronary artery become progressively more narrow thereby causing reduced blood flow to the heart muscle coronary circulation, the tracker system can alert the patient by either or both internal and/or external alarm to take the appropriate medical action. The physician's programmer can be used to display histograms of key heart signal parameters that are indicative of the patient's cardiovascular condition.
摘要:
A hybrid stent that is defined as having a central section that is balloon expandable and end sections that are self-expanding. The entire stent is mounted on a balloon of a balloon angioplasty catheter. One way to retain the self-expanding portion of the stent onto a balloon onto which it has been nested is to place a cylindrical elastomer tube around each of the self-expanding end sections of the stent. Another way to retain the hybrid stent onto a stent delivery system is to use a conventional sheath that is pulled back to initiate stent deployment
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 means of direct stenting; i.e., without requiring pre-dilation of a stenosis.
摘要:
An expandable stent for delivery to a coronary artery. The stent has at least two longitudinally spaced apart circumferential rings having closed ends. Each of the circumferential rings has at least two peak segments and at least two valley segments. At least one longitudinally extending connector extends between adjacent circumferential rings. The connector has a first end portion fixedly connected to a first circumferential ring and a second end portion fixedly connected to an adjacent circumferential ring. The connector has at least one circumferentially extending turn back portion between its first and second end portions that can expand or contract in length while being passed through a curved coronary artery.
摘要:
The present invention is a hybrid stent that is defined as having a central section that is balloon expandable and end sections that are self-expanding. The entire stent is mounted on a balloon of a balloon angioplasty catheter. One way to retain the self-expanding portion of the stent onto a balloon onto which it has been nested is to place a cylindrical elastomer tube around each of the self-expanding end sections of the stent. Another way to retain the hybrid stent onto a stent delivery system is to use a conventional sheath that is pulled back to initiate stent deployment
摘要:
An ultra-thin distal sheath section of the sheathed system uses heat shrinkable elastomer tubing with a wall thickness that is less than 0.05 mm and may be less than 0.025 mm. There are two methods for securing the ultra-thin distal sheath section over the distal tip. A first method is to employ another thin tube shrunk down over the distal end of the ultra-thin distal sheath. It is also envisioned that simply shrinking the ultra-thin distal sheath section down on the tapered section of the distal tip will hold it securely. A monorail (rapid exchange) version of this stent delivery system is also envisioned. A second version uses radioopaque elastic bands mounted over the ends of the balloon just proximal and just distal to the stent to provide a low profile for a primary stent delivery system. These radioopaque elastic bands could contain a high-density material such as tungsten to make them radioopaque and eliminate the need for radioopaque markers normally attached to the angioplasty balloon inner shaft.
摘要:
The present invention provides for an expandable stent (10 or 20) for use in an artery or other vessel of a human body. The stent structure (10 or 20) maintains the patency of the vessel within which the stent (10 or 20) is expanded radially outward. One embodiment of the present invention is a stent (10) having a multiplicity of frames (12) joined together by at least two undulating longitudinal structures (14L and 14R) which can readily change their length in the longitudinal direction so as to provide increased longitudinal flexibility for the stent (10) for easy passage through and placement within a curved vessel such as a coronary artery. The stent (20) is an embodiment of the present invention having frames (22) joined with longitudinal structures (24B, 24T and 24R) and formed from a single, thin-walled piece of metal by laser cutting or chemical etching. Because the stent (20) is fabricated from a single piece of metal, it provides a multiplicity of closed perimeter cells that are formed as a continuous metal structure.
摘要:
Disclosed is a multiple electrode, closed-loop, responsive system for the treatment of certain neurological diseases such as epilepsy, migraine headaches and Parkinson's disease. Brain electrodes would be placed in close proximity to the brain or deep within brain tissue. When a neurological event such as the onset of an epileptic seizure occurs, EEG signals from the electrodes are processed by signal conditioning means in a control module that can be placed beneath the patient's scalp, within the patient's chest, or situated externally on the patient. Neurological event detection means in the control module will then cause a response to be generated for stopping the neurological event. The response could be an electrical signal to brain electrodes or to electrodes located remotely in the patient's body. The response could also be the release of medication or the application of a sensory input such as sound, light or mechanical vibration or electrical stimulation of the skin. The response to the neurological event can originate from devices either internal or external to the patient. The system also has the capability for multi-channel recording of EEG related signals that occur both before and after the detection of a neurological event. Programmability of many different operating parameters of the system by means of external equipment provides adaptability for treating patients who manifest different symptoms and who respond differently to the response generated by the system.
摘要:
A stent delivery catheter system for the treatment of stenoses at an arterial bifurcation consists of a main guide wire, a side branch guide wire, a unique design balloon angioplasty catheter which includes a side branch tube and a stent that can be deployed to a larger diameter in the main artery leading to the arterial bifurcation, and deployed to a smaller diameter within one of the branch arteries at an arterial bifurcation. The balloon angioplasty catheter used to deploy the dual diameter stent has a proximal section that has a larger diameter as compared to the diameter of a distal section which distal section is designed to be placed in a branch artery of the bifurcation. An opening in the wall of the stent allows for the passage of the side branch tube that provides angular orientation of the pre-deployed stent relative to the two branches of the bifurcation. The side branch tube is also used to help assure proper longitudinal placement of the stent relative to the saddle point of the bifurcation. After the stent is deployed, the opening in the stent wall allows unobstructed blood flow into that side branch artery that is not initially stented.
摘要:
The present invention is a device and method for securing and releasing the distal end of a thin-walled sheath to and from a distal section of a stent delivery catheter. The invention comprises a stent delivery catheter system which includes a sheath which is releasably attached to a distal section of a stent delivery catheter. When the stent delivery system has been advanced into the body so that the stent (which is situated coaxially within the sheath) is placed at the site of an arterial stenosis where it is to be deployed, the sheath is released from the stent delivery catheter and then the sheath is pulled back in a proximal direction thereby uncovering the stent. Self-deploying stents will automatically deploy when the sheath is pulled back. Balloon expandable stents can be deployed by balloon inflation after the sheath has been pulled back. One embodiment of the distally attachable and releasable sheath utilizes a guide wire that passes through the stent delivery catheter first to hold and then to release the distal end of the sheath from a distal section of the stent delivery catheter.