Hollow medical wires and methods of constructing same
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A hollow medical guidewire, comprising:
- an elongate hollow body having distal and proximal sections, said body being at least partially constructed from a transformational, non-linear, superelastic nickel titanium alloy material, wherein at least said distal section has recoverable strain and exhibits an unloading plateau stress of not less than about 170 MPa;
an occlusion device mounted on said distal section of said body; and
a lumen formed in said body extending from the proximal section to the distal section for communicating fluids from said proximal section of said body to said distal section of said body.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides an apparatus for performing angioplasty or vascular intervention procedures. The apparatus of the present invention comprises a catheter apparatus comprised of a superelastic hollow guidewire, a balloon member and a flexible tip. The superelastic hollow guidewire of the invention is preferably a hypotube of nitinol alloy. The use of nitinol alloy as hollow guidewire provides a catheter apparatus having high flexibility and torqueability as well as small cross sectional diameter.
-
Citations
19 Claims
-
1. A hollow medical guidewire, comprising:
-
an elongate hollow body having distal and proximal sections, said body being at least partially constructed from a transformational, non-linear, superelastic nickel titanium alloy material, wherein at least said distal section has recoverable strain and exhibits an unloading plateau stress of not less than about 170 MPa;
an occlusion device mounted on said distal section of said body; and
a lumen formed in said body extending from the proximal section to the distal section for communicating fluids from said proximal section of said body to said distal section of said body. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A hollow medical guidewire adapted to have a medical device ride over it to a location within a patient, said guidewire comprising:
-
an elongate hollow body having distal and proximal sections, said body being constructed at least partially from a transformational, non-linear, superelastic nickel-titanium alloy material which transforms upon the application of stress from an austenite phase to a martensite phase, wherein when said alloy material is loaded to a stress value corresponding to the end of elastic deformation of the martensite phase, said alloy material exhibits a substantially constant stress upon unloading of not less than about 170 MPa;
an occlusion device mounted on said distal section of said body; and
a lumen formed in said body extending from said proximal section to said distal section. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A medical guidewire adapted to have a medical device ride over it to a location within a patient, said guidewire comprising:
-
an elongate body having distal and proximal sections, said body being at least partially constructed from a transformation, non-linear, superelastic nickel titanium alloy material, at least said distal section of said body exhibits recoverable strain for a given stress;
said distal section being constructed from a first nickel titanium alloy section having sufficient flexibility to navigate the guidewire through the patient, said first nickel titanim alloy section exhibiting an unloading plateau stress of not less than about 170 Mpa;
said proximal section being constructed from a second nickel titanium alloy section having sufficient stress to provide the guidewire with pushability and trackability for advancing the guidewire through the patient and for riding a medical device over the guidewire; and
an occlusion device on said distal section of said body. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
-
Specification