Nipro Corporation

Nobuyuki Soeda

Katsuya Miyagawa

Yuuki Nishimura

Misa Kakinoki

An atherectomy catheter has a shaft having an opening in the side wall, a cutter which is positioned near the opening in the internal space of the shaft and which can move in the axial direction of the shaft, and a distal end portion connected to the distal end of the shaft. The distal end portion has a blade tube connected to the distal end of the shaft by continuing the internal space, a reduced diameter portion connected to the distal end of the blade tube by continuing the internal space, and a distal end tip whose outer diameter is smaller than the outer diameter of the distal end of the blade tube, whose distal end side is projected outward from the distal end of the reduced diameter portion, and whose proximal end side is extended into the internal space of the blade tube through the internal space of the reduced diameter portion.

Atherectomy catheter

An atherectomy device has a drive circuit which rotates a direct-current motor. The drive circuit has a three-terminal regulator having an ADJ terminal. A partial pressure resistor is connected between the ADJ terminal and an output terminal of the three-terminal regulator. Moreover, one end of six variable resistors whose resistances are set to be different from each other is connected to the ADJ terminal. The other end of the six variable resistors is selectively connected to the negative electrode of a battery by a change-over switch which is a rotary switch having six contacts. When the variable resistors are switched by the change-over switch, the output current of the three-terminal regulator becomes large. Thus, the rotation speed of a cutter which is rotated by the direct-current motor becomes high.

Growing community of inventors

Fukushima, Japan

Nobuyuki Soeda