The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 24, 1992
Filed:
Apr. 17, 1990
Fred Sterzer, Princeton, NJ (US);
MMTC, Inc., Princeton, NJ (US);
Abstract
Disclosed are three forms of an angioplastic instrument employing a ferrite material inductively-heated from outside a patient's body to soften plaque occluding a lumen of a vas of the patient. In a first form, the angioplastic instrument is comprised solely of a thin guide wire having a ferrite-coated tip at its distal end. Each of the other two forms of the angioplastic instrument heats the liquid filling the balloon of an angioplastic balloon catheter with the inductively-heated ferrite material. By utilizing ferrite materials having different Curie temperatures, the amount of heating can be adjusted for a particular treatment protocol. Also, by limiting the value of the Curie temperature of the ferrite material to a safe value, the tissue underlying the vas is inherently protected from undue injury due to overheating.