Gv Medical, Inc.

Iotek, Inc.

Boston Scientific Scimed, Inc.

Spectra Science Corporation

Angiomedics Ii, Inc.

Boston Scientific Corporation

James S Sharrow

Frederick J Foley

Thomas G Adelman

Michael F Hoey

Richard Charles Gunderson

Lorraine E Reeve

Jeffrey Allen McBroom

Brian R Reynolds

James V Kauphusman

Bruce H Neilson

Curtis A Amplatz

Gary L Moore

Jayne G Fangel

Peter T Fettig

Michael L Auer

Leonard A Nordstrom

A guidewire can include a shaft or core wire that has a distal section configured for access to a vascular treatment site and a proximal section configured for intervention at a vascular treatment site. At least a portion of the distal section of the shaft or core wire can have a diameter that is greater than a diameter of the proximal section.

Multiple diameter guidewire

A guidewire and methods for making and using the same. The guidewire may include a core wire and a polymer jacket attached to the core wire. The guidewire may be manufactured by advancing the core wire, polymer jacket, and a tooling tube through a heated die assembly so as to heat and compress the polymer jacket onto the core wire. Optionally, the tooling tube may be removed from the jacket after advancing the components through the die assembly.

Guidewire with polymer jacket and method of making

A guidewire having an embedded matrix polymer construction and methods of making and using the same. The guidewire may include a core wire or member having a proximal region and distal region, a jacket disposed over the distal region, and a coil disposed over the jacket. The coil may include a coating and may be embedded within the jacket.

Guidewire having an embedded matrix polymer

A device and method for delivering an agent to the uterine cervix make use of a seal member that defines a chamber upon engagement with the cervix. An agent delivery port in fluid communication with the chamber is provided for delivery of the agent to the uterine cervix. A vacuum port in fluid communication with the chamber allows application and retention of vacuum pressure to the chamber. At least a portion of the seal member can be made deformable in response to contact with the outer surface of the uterine cervix and application of vacuum pressure. Upon deformation, the seal member substantially seals the chamber against leakage of the agent. The seal member may include a skirt-like member that promotes adhesion of the seal member to the cervix, and enhances the effectiveness of the seal. The device facilitates vacuum application, cervical fixation, and a resulting barrier against uterine fluid leakage, providing an atraumatic, temporary cervical plug that remains effective while the vacuum is applied. In this manner, the device is capable of improving diagnostic or therapeutic effectiveness while reducing waste and expense. The device and method also can be adapted for introduction of surgical or diagnostic instruments, such as ablation catheters or endoscopes.

Device and method for delivery of agents to the female reproductive tract

Devices and a method are provided to assist a surgeon in ablating conduction paths in tissue, such as a heart. A device can be configured to operate as a template that adheres to the tissue surface, and allows the surgeon to more easily sever the conduction path to form a lesion in a desired location. In particular, the template can be used to guide the surgeon's use of a surgical instrument along a desired ablation path. In some case, the template may incorporate hardware that structurally supports the instrument for travel along the ablation path. A surgical instrument such as an ablation probe, e.g., radio frequency, laser, ultrasonic, microwave, thermal, chemical, mechanical, or cryogenic ablation probe, may be used to sever the conduction paths. Measurements made substantially contemporaneously with the conduction path ablation operation may be used to evaluate whether the desired degree of ablation has been achieved. The device may also incorporate feedback to compare the desired degree of conduction path ablation with the measured degree, and may deactivate the surgical instrument when the desired degree has been achieved. In some cases, the template device can be configured to provide local stabilization of organ tissue, particularly for a moving organ such as a beating heart. In other cases, the template device may provide little or no stabilization, but provide a guide structure for placement of the ablation probe in the same frame of motion as the moving tissue. Also, for some applications, the template device may be arranged to facilitate application of other therapeutic devices, such as diagnostic probes, pacing leads, and drug delivery devices, to the surface of a moving organ.

Surgical devices and methods for use in tissue ablation procedures

Devices and methods of manipulating and stabilizing organ tissue, such as heart tissue. The devices, which are of varying sizes, shapes and conformations, generally include a seal member having a chamber with a wall and a skirt-like member that extends outward from the chamber wall for contact with a surface of an organ. The skirt-like member is substantially compliant and tacky, thereby promoting adhesion with the organ surface. Adherence of the device to the tissue may be enhance by the mechanical or hydraulic application of vacuum pressure. The methods describe steps for manipulating, including moving, lifting, immobilizing, turning and reorienting, organ tissues. Additional methods describe steps for manipulating the heart.

Devices and method for manipulation of organ tissue

Disclosed is an apparatus for use in applying UV light to a blood vessel wall following the performance of a balloon angioplasty procedure. It comprises an elongated optical fiber whose outside diameter permits it to be inserted into the lumen of a guidewire that is used to position the angioplasty balloon at the site of the lesion to be treated. The guidewire is provided with a light port and a suitable reflector is provided for causing UV light transmitted through the optical fiber to be radiated in a radial direction through the light port in the guidewire to thereby irradiate the vessel wall with UV energy that has been found effective in retarding growth of smooth muscle cells.

Method and apparatus for treating vessel wall with UV radiation

The present invention provides a guidewire which incorporates an optical fiber and associated diagnostic apparatus for diagnosing tissue in vivo. Use of the present invention provides for diagnosis of tissue and tailoring of the therapeutic portion of the procedure to the tissue or condition identified by the guidewire and associated diagnostic apparatus.

System for diagnosing tissue with guidewire

Method of diagnosing tissue with guidewire

A catheter comprising a unitary guidewire and single mode optical fiber is used to illuminate human body channels, such as a tissue mass within a blood vessel, for purposes of diagnosis. A low coherent light source illuminates the tissue and provides a reference beam. Illumination that is reflected from the tissue is combined with the reference beam in an interferometer process. The path length of the reference beam is changed in a known manner in order to provide a known reference to the distance inside of the tissue from which reflected radiation is being received, thus providing information as to both the nature and the geometry of the tissue. A high signal to noise ratio is provided.

Guidewire catheter and apparatus for diagnostic imaging

An optical fiber storage and manipulation system (1) is disclosed, including a storage container (2) and a fiber insertion tool (3). The storage apparatus (2) includes a housing (11) containing a reel (13) onto which portions of a bare fiber (6) as well as a sheathed tube (36) coaxially covering the fiber (6) is wound. The fiber (6) may be withdrawn from the housing (11) and inserted into a fiber insertion tool (3) having a frame (15) which houses a sliding fiber gripping assembly (16) which permits the application of longitudinal compressive force to the fiber and advances the fiber (6) by means of a fiber advance tube (17) which telescopes into a larger diameter cannula insertion tube (18). The present system can be used, for example, in the field of laser angiosurgery in which arterial blockages are removed by the application of laser energy to arterial blockages by means of advancing an optical fiber to the site of the blockage. The present system permits advancement of the fiber (6) through a relatively tortuous path without damage to the fiber.

Optical fiber advancement, retraction and storage system

Disclosed is a cylindrical balloon mounted near the distal tip of a percutaneous transluminal laser angioplasty catheter. Proximal and distal neck sections of the balloon are sealed to the catheter tubing, and a balloon inflation lumen originating at the tubing proximal end is open to the balloon interior. An elongate cylindrical body of the balloon is joined to the distal neck by a substantially transverse distal wall. As the balloon dilates in response to fluid under pressure supplied to the lumen, the distal wall tends to position the distal neck and distal end of the catheter tubing in centered, coaxial relation to the balloon body.

Centering balloon structure for transluminal angioplasty catheter

A transluminal balloon laser catheter has an inflatable distal tip formed by an elongated balloon sealed at the distal end of a length of catheter tubing, and inflatable to an operating configuration in which the balloon effectively extends the distal end of an optical fiber lumen through the catheter tubing. One embodiment of the balloon is formed with a substantially planar distal face, transverse with respect to the extension of the balloon. In an alternative embodiment, the distal face of the balloon is formed as a truncated cone, converging proximally from a radially outward longitudinal balloon section to a radially inward longitudinal balloon section whereby the distal tip of an optical fiber, even when advanced distally of the optical fiber lumen, is proximal with respect to the most distal portion of the balloon.

Inflatable tip for laser catheterization

A catheter manifold for an angioplasty balloon catheter assembly houses a plurality of serially arranged luers. Longitudinal sections of the luers are joined by tubular connectors, and with the connectors form a central passage through the manifold. At the most distal tubular connector is a reduction in passage diameter. A plurality of elongate, longitudinally directed flutes are formed in that connector just proximal of the diameter reduction. The flutes are engaged by a guide wire insertion tube or fiber insertion tube as it is loaded into the manifold, and tend to center the tube in the passageway. The flutes tend to maintain it in coaxial relation to the passageway, while permitting fluids from the proximal luers to flow in the passageway exteriorly of the tube.

Growing community of inventors

Bloomington, MN, United States of America

James S Sharrow