US 6,192,095 B1Granted

Xenon-133 radioactive stent for preventing restenosis of blood vessels and a process for producing the same

AssigneeJapan Atomic Energy Research Institute

InventorsToshiaki Sekine, Satoshi Watanabe, Akihiko Osa, Noriko Ishioka, Mitsuo Koizumi, Ryozo Nagai, Akira Hasegawa, Eiichi Okamoto, Akito Miyajima, Keiko Aoyagi, Yoichi Hoshino, Takahiro Yamagishi, Masahiko Kurabayashi

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Abstract

Radioactive stents used in angioplasty on sclerotic coronary arteries without the risk of restenosis can be produced by ion injecting 133Xe into the surfaces of stents as a nuclide that has a shorter half-life and emits a smaller maximum energy of β-rays than 32p Uniform ion injection is accomplished using an apparatus capable of uniform irradiation of the stents with 133Xe ion beams. The source of 133Xe is a nuclear fission product generated from 235U in the fuel rods in nuclear reactor.

Claims1

Dependent claims

A process of preparing a 133Xe radioactive stent to be placed within a blood vessel for preventing restenosis of the blood vessel by retarding the growth of smooth muscles by means of β-rays and internal conversion electrons emitted from 133Xe, the process comprising:

generating a gaseous nuclear fission product of 133Xe by nuclear fission in a 235U target in fuel rods in a nuclear reactor upon irradiation of 235U with neutrons;
flowing the gaseous 133Xe fission product into a Xe purifier;
supplying 133Xe from the Xe purifier into an ion source to ionize the 133Xe and yield an ion beam of 133Xe;
and
introducing the ion beam into an irradiating unit to irradiate stents positioned on a vertically moveable rotating table and to uniformly inject 133Xe into the surface of the stents.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.