Surgery – Diagnostic testing – Cardiovascular
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-03
2001-04-03
O'Connor, Cary (Department: 3736)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
Cardiovascular
C600S488000, C600S459000, C600S372000, C600S373000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06210339
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates in general to the field of medical devices, more particularly, this invention relates to a flexible elongate member such as a medical guide wire or catheter having one or more electrical contacts.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Flexible elongate members used in medical applications such as guide wires, catheters, etc., which have electrical devices (e.g., pressure sensors, ultrasound transducers, pressure flow measurement devices, etc.) need to have one or more electrical contacts typically close to the proximal end of the member. The electrical contacts allow for the electrical interconnection of the electrical device found on the flexible elongate member, for example, a pressure sensor, to an external monitoring apparatus.
Currently there is some difficulty in manufacturing small electrical contacts on flexible elongate members such as guide wires having a diameter in the order of 0.018 inch or less. In
FIG. 1
there is shown a prior art guide wire
100
having an electrical device in the form of a pressure sensor
110
located in proximity to the distal end of the guide wire
100
. Pressure guide wire
100
includes a plurality of electrical contacts
104
separated by insulator bands (spacers)
116
which help form a cylindrical connector located close to the proximal extremity
102
of the pressure guide wire
100
. These electrical contacts
104
are electrically interconnected to pressure sensor
110
and allow for the connection of the pressure sensor to an external monitoring apparatus.
The pressure guide wire
100
further includes a shaft also referred to as a hypotube
106
typically formed of stainless steel, a flexible coil member
108
located on one side of the pressure sensor
110
, a radiopaque coil
112
located on the other side of pressure sensor
110
, and a tip
114
. The pressure sensor
110
is electrically interconnected to contacts
104
via a plurality of electrical conductors (not shown), which run through the inside of the flexible is coil
108
and shaft
106
.
The cylindrical guide wire connector formed by contacts
104
is interconnected to a female connector
200
shown in FIG.
2
. The proximal end
102
of pressure wire
100
is inserted in to the nose section
206
of connector
200
such that contacts
104
become electrical coupled to corresponding contacts located inside of the swivel head
204
. The other end of connector
200
includes a pin plug
202
, which interconnects to an appropriate monitoring apparatus, in this case a pressure monitor (not shown). In use, the distal end of pressure wire
100
is inserted into a vessel (e.g., artery) of a patient in order to measure the pressure at certain locations along the vessel, which is under investigation.
One problem with pressure guide wire
100
is that the individual electrical contacts
104
are very difficult and expensive to integrate into the guide wire. Contacts
104
are individual metal bands, which are separated by non-electrically conductive spacers
116
. During manufacture, each of the individual contacts
104
have to be soldered to the appropriate electrical conductor (not shown, e.g., electrical wire), which is attached to pressure sensor
110
.
After the appropriate electrical conductor is soldered or welded to its corresponding contact
104
, each individual contact has to be adhesively bonded to the rest of the guide wire
100
. The spacers
116
also have to be individually inserted and bonded to the adjacent contact(s)
104
. The bonding of the spacers
116
and contacts
104
causes further problems in that the adhesive which bonds them together tends to seep between the joints and has to be removed from the exterior portions of the proximal end of the guide wire
100
. Given the small size of the guide wire
100
, all of these time consuming steps have to be performed by assembly workers using microscopes which further increase the opportunity for manufacturing mistakes to occur.
Problems can also occur with the contacts
104
or spacers
116
becoming separated from the rest of the assembly due to bad bonding of a particular contact
104
or spacer
116
. Another manufacturing problem occurs with the solder joints, which interconnect the electrical conductors coming from pressure sensor
110
to the individual contacts
104
. Given that the electrical conductors have to be soldered to the inside surface of the contacts
104
, there is very little room in which to solder the contact with a soldering tool, thus some bad solder joints can occur during production.
A need thus exists in the art for a contact assembly, which can overcome the problems associated with the prior art mentioned above.
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Brunicardi Daniel A.
Eberle Michael J.
Kiepen Horst F.
Rizzuti Gary P.
Endosonics Corporation
Leydig , Voit & Mayer, Ltd.
Natnithitadha Navin
O'Connor Cary
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