Catheters comprising bending transducers and methods for their use
First Claim
1. A catheter comprising:
- a catheter body having a proximal end and a distal end; and
a bending plate transducer attached to the catheter body near the distal end thereof, the transducer arranged to vibrationally flex about an axis within a plane of the transducer.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A catheter comprises a catheter body having a bending plate transducer disposed at or near its distal end. The bending plate transducer is typically a unimorph, bimorph, or other conventional vibratory transducer capable of imparting pressure waves in a direction generally normal to the plane of the transducer. The bending plate transducers may be disposed at a distal end of the catheter body, for example, as a cantilever beam, or may alternately be disposed within the catheter body. The catheters may further comprise lumens for drug delivery, balloons for encircling the transducer structures, or the like. The catheters are useful in a variety of lumenal therapeutic procedures, including drug delivery, stenotic disruption within blood vessel, and the like.
379 Citations
26 Claims
-
1. A catheter comprising:
-
a catheter body having a proximal end and a distal end; and a bending plate transducer attached to the catheter body near the distal end thereof, the transducer arranged to vibrationally flex about an axis within a plane of the transducer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A method for intralumenal delivery of vibrational energy to a body lumen, said method comprising:
-
providing a catheter having a bending plate transducer near a distal end thereof; positioning the catheter with a body lumen so that the transducer lies adjacent a target site within the body lumen; and energizing the transducer to vibrationally flex the transducer about an axis within the plane of the transducer. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
-
Specification