Physiologic low stress angioplasty
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of angioplasty, comprising:
- providing a catheter having a liquid-expansible dilatation balloon and means for controllably providing heated liquid within the balloon to enable conductive heat transfer from the heated liquid, through the wall of the balloon,inserting the catheter into a region of a blood vessel narrowed by plaque or stenotic tissue,inflating said balloon to an initial subdilatation pressure sufficient to cause the balloon to engage the wall surface of the narrowed vessel in a conductive heat transfer relationship without substantially displacing the wall of the vessel,increasing the temperature of the engaged vessel wall by conductive heat transfer from heated liquid within the balloon while controlling the inflating pressure, the temperature of said liquid within said balloon and the duration of treatment to cause a physiological response in which the heated wall of the vessel yields to said pressure of said dilatation balloon as a result of softening of the wall produced by said conductive heat transfer,thereby enabling dilatation of said vessel to occur under relatively low stress conditions.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods for dilation of a body lumen, using an expandable dilatation catheter to simultaneously heat and apply pressure to tissue of the lumen and to expand and dilate the lumen including means constructed to produce and/or detect physiological response of the heated tissue to applied pressure.
-
Citations
52 Claims
-
1. A method of angioplasty, comprising:
-
providing a catheter having a liquid-expansible dilatation balloon and means for controllably providing heated liquid within the balloon to enable conductive heat transfer from the heated liquid, through the wall of the balloon, inserting the catheter into a region of a blood vessel narrowed by plaque or stenotic tissue, inflating said balloon to an initial subdilatation pressure sufficient to cause the balloon to engage the wall surface of the narrowed vessel in a conductive heat transfer relationship without substantially displacing the wall of the vessel, increasing the temperature of the engaged vessel wall by conductive heat transfer from heated liquid within the balloon while controlling the inflating pressure, the temperature of said liquid within said balloon and the duration of treatment to cause a physiological response in which the heated wall of the vessel yields to said pressure of said dilatation balloon as a result of softening of the wall produced by said conductive heat transfer, thereby enabling dilatation of said vessel to occur under relatively low stress conditions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A system for dilation of a body lumen, for use with an expandable dilatation catheter constructed to simultaneously heat and apply pressure to the tissue of the lumen to expand and dilate the lumen, comprising:
means constructed to detect physiological response of heated lumen tissue to applied pressure, said means including catheter control means responsive to the detected behavior of the heated tissue to control said catheter to enable dilatation of said lumen under relatively low stress conditions. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
-
36. A system for dilation of a body lumen comprising:
-
an inflatable dilatation balloon catheter and associated heating means arranged to simultaneously apply heat via conductive heat transfer from said balloon to lumen tissue and pressure to said tissue, and means constructed to detect physiological response of heated lumen tissue to applied pressure, said means including catheter control means responsive to the detected behavior of the tissue to control said catheter to enable dilatation of said lumen under relatively low stress conditions. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
-
-
43. A method for dilation of a body lumen, comprising:
-
employing a system comprising the combination of an expandable dilatation catheter constructed to simultaneously heat and apply pressure to the tissue of the lumen and to expand and dilate the lumen; and means constructed to detect physiological response of heated lumen tissue to applied pressure, said means including catheter control means responsive to the detected behavior of the tissue to control said catheter to enable dilation of said lumen under relatively low stress conditions. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
-
Specification