Vascular stent with composite structure for magnetic reasonance imaging capabilities
AssigneeInflow Dynamics Inc.
InventorsEckhard Alt, Torsten Scheuermann, Michael Kühling
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Abstract
A stent is adapted to be implanted in a duct of a human body to maintain an open lumen at the implant site, and to allow viewing body tissue and fluids by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) energy applied external to the body. The stent constitutes a metal scaffold. An electrical circuit resonant at the resonance frequency of the MRI energy is fabricated integral with the scaffold structure of the stent to promote viewing body properties within the lumen of the stent.
Claims20
A stent adapted to be implanted in a duct of a human body to maintain an open lumen at the implant site, and to allow viewing body properties outside and within the implanted stent by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) energy applied external to the body, said stent comprising a metal scaffold, and an electrical circuit resonant at the resonance frequency of said MRI energy integral with said scaffold.
A stent adapted to be implanted in a duct of a human body to maintain an open lumen at the implant site, said stent comprising a tubular scaffold of low ferromagnetic metal, and an inductance-cpacitance (LC) circuit integral with said scaffold, said LC circuit being geometrically structured in combination with said scaffold to be resonant at the resonance frequency of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) energy to be applied to said body to enable MRI viewing of body tissue and fluid within the lumen of the stent when implanted and subjected to said MRI energy.
A stent constructed and adapted to be implanted in a vessel, duct or channel of the human body to maintain patency of the lumen thereof and to allow substantially distortion-free magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the interior of the stent when implanted and subjected to MRI energy, said stent comprising a tubular scaffolding structure composed at least primarily of metal having sufficiently low ferromagnetic property to avoid material distortion of the magnetic resonance field, at least one electrically conductive layer overlying at least a portion of the surface of said scaffolding structure to enhance properties of the stent for magnetic resonance imagine (MRI) of the interior of the stent when implanted, and an electrically insulative layer residing between said at least a portion of the surface of said scaffolding structure and said at least one electrically conductive layer, wherein said electrically insulative layer is formed from an oxide of the metal of said scaffolding structure.
A stent constructed and adapted to be implanted in a vessel, duct or channel of the human body to maintain patency of the lumen thereof and to allow substantially distortion-free magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the interior of the stent when implanted and subjected to MRI energy, said stent comprising a tubular scaffolding structure composed at least primarily of metal having sufficiently low ferromagnetic property to avoid material distortion of the magnetic resonance field, at least one electrically conductive layer overlying at least a portion of the surface of said scaffolding structure, and an electrically insulative layer residing between said at least a portion of the surface of said scaffolding structure and said at least one electrically conductive layer, said scaffolding structure and said conductive and insulative layers being geometrically arranged in a composite relationship to form an inductance capacitance (LC) circuit integrated within the stent for resonance at the magnetic resonance frequency of the MRI energy so as to enable the MRI image to depict the region within and external to the stent without material distortion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.