Abstract:
A steerable catheter has a body with an outer surface and an inner surface defining a central lumen. The outer surface and inner surface define a wall of the body, which has a plurality of steering lumen and control lumen extending longitudinally therethrough. The body includes a body material. The steering lumen and control lumen have a control lumen lining and steering lumen lining, respectively, with a higher durometer than the body material. A steering wire is positioned within the steering lumen and a control wire is positioned within the control lumen.
Abstract:
An intravascular delivery system includes a threaded coil. The threaded coil includes one or more wires coiled to form a spiral coil with at least one thread extending along a length of the threaded coil. The threaded coil is plastically deformable for delivery of the threaded coil to a target location in the body and is rotatable to longitudinally position an intravascular device at the target location.
Abstract:
An apparatus and method for electrochemically treating the struts of an intravascular stent is disclosed. An intravascular stent is mounted in a chamber and is electrochemically treated in order to remove a portion of the stent struts in order to form an airfoil shape. The airfoil-shaped stent struts will reduce turbulent blood flow in the vasculature in which the stent is implanted thereby improving clinical outcome.
Abstract:
Intraluminal scaffold assembly implantable in a body lumen of a patient to manipulate a valve of the lumen is provided. The intraluminal scaffold assembly includes an intraluminal scaffold (1100), an elongated core member (1200) coupled with the intraluminal scaffold having a length sufficient to traverse a valve in a body lumen with the intraluminal scaffold positioned proximate the valve. The intraluminal scaffold assembly can further include one or more additional intraluminal scaffolds, a weighted element (1201) or an active element that is coupled with the elongated core member. A system including a delivery system and the intraluminal scaffold assembly, as well as methods of delivering the intraluminal scaffold assembly and using the intraluminal scaffold assembly to manipulate a valve in a body lumen, is also provided.
Abstract:
A system and method for precision cutting using multiple laser beams is described, The system and method includes a combination of optical components that split the output of a single laser into multiple beams, with the power, polarization status and spot size of each split beam being individually controllable, while providing a circularly polarized beam at the surface of a work piece to be cut by the laser beam. A system and method for tracking manufacture of individual stents is also provided.
Abstract:
An intraluminal catheter device having an expandable member formed of a matrix of fiber elements with a therapeutic agent incorporated therein. The therapeutic agent can be coated on the fiber elements in a co-axial configuration. The fiber elements may also have a second coating including a protective substance surrounding the therapeutic agent. The matrix of fiber elements can be formed by electrospinning. A process of delivering a therapeutic agent to a target site includes providing an intraluminal catheter device having an expandable member formed of a matrix of fiber elements, the expandable member having a therapeutic agent dispersed therein, and advancing the catheter device at a desired treatment site. Once at the desired treatment site, fluid is introduced into the inflation lumen to expand the expandable member from a first profile to a second profile, and the therapeutic agent is delivered to the desired treatment site.
Abstract:
A catheter (10) for delivering an agent to an injection site in a wall of a patient's body lumen, with an elongated shaft (11) having a needle-through lumen (12) slidably containing a needle (13) therein, and an expandable member (15) on the distal shaft section which has a collapsed configuration and a radially expanded configuration. In the radially expanded configuration, the expandable member supports the shaft in a position spaced away from the body lumen wall, and the needle slidably exits the needle-through lumen in the extended configuration through the port (14) spaced away from the body lumen wall as a portion of the expandable member maintains the position of the port section of the shaft in the body lumen. The expandable member typically has an open-walled, helical, or lobed configuration providing a perfusion path along the expandable member.
Abstract:
A support catheter that can puncture a heart septum with a guidewire without buckling and that can access difficult to reach arteries such as carotid or renal arteries from the aorta under difficult circumstances is provided. The support catheter comprises a catheter body having a proximal end, a distal end, and an interior wall surface defining a first lumen extending from the proximal end toward the distal end. A second lumen is disposed between the interior wall surface and an outer surface of the catheter body. A plurality of stiffening members is disposed around the second lumen, the plurality of stiffening members being engageable to selectively stiffen the catheter body. In another configuration, the catheter further comprises a second plurality of stiffening members disposed between the first lumen and the second lumen.
Abstract:
A support catheter that can puncture a heart septum with a guidewire without buckling and that can access difficult to reach arteries such as carotid or renal arteries from the aorta under difficult circumstances is provided. The support catheter comprises a catheter body having a proximal end, a distal end, and an interior wall surface defining a first lumen extending from the proximal end toward the distal end. A second lumen is disposed between the interior wall surface and an outer surface of the catheter body. A plurality of stiffening members is disposed around the second lumen, the plurality of stiffening members being engageable to selectively stiffen the catheter body. In another configuration, the catheter further comprises a second plurality of stiffening members disposed between the first lumen and the second lumen.
Abstract:
In one of many possible embodiments, a method for treating an obstruction within a blood vessel includes applying a stimulus to a fluid near the obstruction to disrupt the obstruction. The stimulus may include applying a stimulus to the fluid near the obstruction to breach a proximal cap and applying a stimulus to dilate micro-channels formed within the obstruction. Such stimuli may include causing cavitation within one or more fluid near the device, expanding one or more fluid that is in contact with irregularities in the obstruction, and bombarding the obstruction with particles that undergo a rapid phase change.