Flexible Cytology Coil
AssigneeCook Medical Technologies LLC
InventorFionan Keady
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A medical device for collecting cells includes a delivery tube having a flexible wire disposed within a lumen of the tube. The flexible wire includes a rigid proximal portion and a flexible distal portion. The flexible distal portion includes a cell collecting portion that can be advanced out of the needle and into a body cavity. The flexible nature of the wire will allow it to generally fill the body cavity to increase the contacted surface area and the amount of cells that are collected. The wire can then be retracted back into the needle for removal from the patient's body.
Claims26
A medical device for collecting cells, the device comprising:
- an elongate tube having proximal and distal portions and a lumen extending therebetween;
- a distal opening of the tube disposed at the distal portion;
- an elongate wire extending through the tube lumen, the wire comprising a generally rigid proximal portion and a generally flexible distal portion including a cell collecting portion for collecting cells from a body cavity;
- wherein the wire proximal portion is configured for being pushed distally through the tube lumen while being at least partially retained within the tube lumen;
- and
- wherein the flexible distal portion of the wire is operable in a cell collecting configuration where it is pushed out of the distal opening of the tube and into a body cavity to folds over itself in a random tortuous pattern to form a random, tortuous, overlapping path in response to the proximal portion being pushed.
A system for collecting cells from a body cavity, the system comprising:
- a tubular delivery device having a proximal portion and a distal portion, a lumen extending therebetween, and a distal opening;
- a flexible wire disposed within the tubular delivery device, the flexible wire having a distal end disposed proximally of the distal opening when the wire is in a delivery configuration and extended distally from the bevel portion when the wire is in an exposed configuration;
- and
- wherein the flexible wire is folded over itself and bent in a random and tortuous pattern to form a random, overlapping, tortuous path conforming to the general shape of the body cavity into which it is inserted when in the exposed configuration.
A method for collecting cells from a body cavity, the method comprising:
- inserting a cell collecting device into a body cavity, the cell collecting device comprising:
- a tubular delivery device having a proximal portion, a distal portion, a lumen extending therebetween, and an opening at the distal portion;
- a flexible wire having a cell collecting portion disposed at a distal portion thereof, the flexible wire being housed within the delivery device lumen when the wire is in a delivery configuration and extending from the delivery device when the wire is in a cell collecting configuration;
- translating the flexible wire distally along the lumen;
- extending the cell collecting portion from the delivery device opening;
- contacting a surface of the body cavity with flexible wire;
- deforming the flexible wire to contact and abrade additional areas of the body cavity surface;
- collecting cells from the body cavity surface;
- retracting the wire into the delivery device;
- and
- removing the delivery device and wire having the cells.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.