Surgery – Means for introducing or removing material from body for... – Treating material introduced into or removed from body...
Reexamination Certificate
1998-01-30
2001-08-28
Seidel, Richard K. (Department: 3763)
Surgery
Means for introducing or removing material from body for...
Treating material introduced into or removed from body...
C604S264000, C600S435000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06280434
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an angiographic catheter for use in radiography of a lumina of a human such as a heart, a blood vessel of surrounding the heart, a liver, a pancreas, a bile duct and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a Judkins type catheter or an Anplatz type catheter has been employed to form an image of a coronary artery, whereas a pigtail type catheter has been employed to form a X-ray image of a left ventricle.
For example, the pigtail type catheter is introduced into a blood vessel near the left ventricle from a femoral artery using a Seldinger method or a sheath method. A guide wire is inserted into the catheter so that the catheter is able to proceed, retreat, rotate or perform other motions. The catheter thereby selects a desired path from a plurality of branching blood vessels and reaches an ascending artery. Thereafter, a distal end portion of the catheter that is curved like a loop is inserted into the left ventricle. In this state, a contrast medium is fed from a proximal end portion of the catheter and injected into the left ventricle in order to form an image thereof.
FIG. 4
is a perspective view illustrating the construction of the generally employed pigtail type catheter, and
FIG. 5
is a perspective view illustrating a state where the contrast medium is injected from the catheter as illustrated in FIG.
4
.
As illustrated in these figures, the generally employed pigtail type catheter
11
has a distal end opening
13
and a plurality of side apertures
14
. The side apertures
14
are located toward the proximal end portion of the catheter
11
from a loop-like deformed portion
12
. Hence, a contrast medium
8
is injected from the distal end opening
13
and the respective side apertures
14
.
In this case, the respective side apertures
14
are formed perpendicularly to an outer peripheral wall of the catheter
11
. However, the contrast medium
8
, which is fed under a high pressure, is not injected perpendicularly to the outer peripheral wall of the catheter
11
but obliquely toward the distal end of the catheter
11
(See arrows as illustrated in FIG.
5
). This is because the side apertures
14
have a relatively large diameter (0.9 mm).
Hence, a reaction force generated by injection of the contrast medium
8
moves (or displaces) the distal end portion of the catheter
11
toward the proximal end portion of the catheter
11
, that is, toward a sinus of Valsalva. Also, the reaction force generated by injection of the contrast medium
8
from the distal end opening
13
of the catheter
11
moves the distal end portion of the catheter
11
laterally, that is, in a direction in which the loop-like deformed portion
12
extends. Consequently, the catheter
11
moves diagonally upward from a location indicated by a dashed line of
FIG. 5
(to a location indicated by a solid line).
In the case where injection of the X-ray contrast medium causes such a movement of the catheter, the distal end portion of the catheter tends to be detached from a desired part (left ventricle), and it is impossible to feed the contrast medium into the desired part appropriately and uniformly. As a result, the function of X-ray image formation becomes insufficient.
Although some of the generally employed angiographic catheters are provided with a plurality of side apertures, the number of the side apertures formed in an arbitrary portion of the catheter with an axial length of 10 mm is at most 6. Because the side apertures are arranged at long intervals, the contrast medium injected from the respective side apertures cannot flow into a space corresponding to the desired part uniformly. In order to enhance the function of image formation sufficiently, it is inevitable to increase a flow rate of the contrast medium. In this case, the contrast medium flowing out of the respective side apertures intensely stimulates the lumina of a human.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a first object of the present invention to provide an angiographic catheter which is able to perform the operation of image formation appropriately by inhibiting the catheter from being moved or displaced by injection of a contrast medium.
In order to achieve the first object, there is provided an angiographic catheter exhibiting elasticity and having at a distal end portion thereof a deformed portion that is curved into a desired shape when no external force is applied thereto, the deformed portion having at a distal end thereof a distal end opening, wherein a plurality of minute side apertures are formed in a portion that is located toward a proximal end of the catheter from the deformed portion, and wherein the side apertures are arranged such that a reaction force generated by injection of a liquid fed through a lumen of the catheter from the distal end opening is counterbalanced to the greatest possible extent by the liquid injected from the respective side apertures.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide an angiographic catheter which is able to feed the contrast medium uniformly into a space corresponding to a desired part of a lumina of a human reduce the amount of the contrast medium required to perform the operation of image formation sufficiently, weaken the impetus of the contrast medium flowing out of the respective side apertures and alleviate a stimulus imparted to the lumina of a human.
In order to achieve the second object, there is provided an angiographic catheter including a catheter tube having a lumen, a distal end opening that communicates with the lumen, and side apertures that communicate with the lumen, wherein the side apertures are provided to a predetermined section of a flank of a distal end portion of the catheter tube, and wherein the number of the side apertures formed in an arbitrary section of the predetermined section with an axial length of 10 mm is greater than 9, each of the side apertures covering an area smaller than 0.3 mm
2
.
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Kinoshita Yasushi
Takamiya Makoto
Burns Doane , Swecker, Mathis LLP
Seidel Richard K.
Terumo Kabushiki Kaisha
Thanh Loan H.
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