Angioplastic technique employing an inductively-heated ferrite material
First Claim
1. In an angioplastic instrument comprising guide-wire means having a cross section and a distal end which is adapted to be threaded through the vascular system of a patient'"'"'s body and be positioned in cooperative relationship with plaque occluding the lumen of a vas having a cross section no smaller in size than that of the cross section of said guide-wire means;
- wherein said guide-wire means includes ferrite material situated toward said distal end thereof;
the improvement wherein;
said ferrite material is isolated from and electrically floats with respect to points of potential outside of said patient'"'"'s body, thereby permitting the size of said cross section of said guide-wire means to be reduced;
whereby said ferrite material is inductively heated solely by radio-frequency radiation that has been transmitted thereto from outside of said patient'"'"'s body and absorbed thereby.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Disclosed are three forms of an angioplastic instrument employing a ferrite material inductively-heated from outside a patient'"'"'s body to soften plaque occluding a lumen of a vas of the patient. In a first form, the angioplastic instrument is comprised solely of a thin guide wire having a ferrite-coated tip at its distal end. Each of the other two forms of the angioplastic instrument heats the liquid filling the balloon of an angioplastic balloon catheter with the inductively-heated ferrite material. By utilizing ferrite materials having different Curie temperatures, the amount of heating can be adjusted for a particular treatment protocol. Also, by limiting the value of the Curie temperature of the ferrite material to a safe value, the tissue underlying the vas is inherently protected from undue injury due to overheating.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. In an angioplastic instrument comprising guide-wire means having a cross section and a distal end which is adapted to be threaded through the vascular system of a patient'"'"'s body and be positioned in cooperative relationship with plaque occluding the lumen of a vas having a cross section no smaller in size than that of the cross section of said guide-wire means;
- wherein said guide-wire means includes ferrite material situated toward said distal end thereof;
the improvement wherein;said ferrite material is isolated from and electrically floats with respect to points of potential outside of said patient'"'"'s body, thereby permitting the size of said cross section of said guide-wire means to be reduced; whereby said ferrite material is inductively heated solely by radio-frequency radiation that has been transmitted thereto from outside of said patient'"'"'s body and absorbed thereby. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
- wherein said guide-wire means includes ferrite material situated toward said distal end thereof;
Specification