Angioplasty catheter for expanding and/or opening up blood vessels
AssigneeC.R. Bard, Inc.
InventorsThomas Dornhofer, Burkhard Husslein, Christian Meyer, Erhard Starck, Harry Zscheeg
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention pertains to an angioplasty catheter for expanding and/or opening up morbidly constricted or obstructed blood vessels, comprising at least one rotor (3) that is rotatively mounted in a cylindrical housing (4) at the distal end of the catheter, is connected to a rotational actuator (2) and is guided in the axial and/or radial direction along a preset path of motion (5), where as a result of the guided motion, the turning rotor (3) mechanically generates endogenous sound waves, especially sound waves in the ultrasound range, and induces a corresponding motion of the housing (4).
Claims14
An angioplasty catheter having a distal end, comprising:
- a housing positioned at the distal end of the catheter;
- a rotor rotatably disposed in the housing;
- a force-guide connected to the housing and positioned to contact the rotor as the rotor rotates, the force-guide being responsive to the rotational motion of the rotor to induce a guided oscillatory axial movement of the housing and thereby generate ultrasonic waves.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.