116 results about "Arterial disease" patented technology

The present invention is directed to the use of a stented graft having predetermined and sized lateral openings for the treatment of arterial disease at or around the intersection of multiple arteries, thereby ensuring blood flow through such arteries to collateral organs. In particular, the lateral opening of a main stent supporting a main artery has a collar with either at least two detents or inlets spaced about the annular extent thereof. The main collar mates with a collateral collar provided at the proximal end of the collateral stent having the other of at least two detents or inlets spaced about the annular extent thereof at intervals coincident with the inlets or detents on the main collar to mate and lock the main stent to the collateral stent supporting a collateral artery.

Methods and apparatus are provided for removing emboli during an angioplasty, stenting or surgical procedure comprising a catheter having an occlusion element, an aspiration lumen, and a blood outlet port in communication with the lumen, a guide wire having a balloon, a venous return sheath with a blood inlet port, and tubing that couples the blood outlet port to the blood inlet port. Apparatus is also provided for occluding the external carotid artery to prevent reversal of flow into the internal carotid artery. The pressure differential between the artery and the vein provides reverse flow through the artery, thereby flushing emboli. A blood filter may optionally be included in-line with the tubing to filter emboli from blood reperfused into the patient.

Methods and apparatus are provided for removing emboli during an angioplasty, stenting or surgical procedure comprising a catheter having an occlusion element, an aspiration lumen, and a blood outlet port in communication with the lumen, a guide wire having a balloon, a venous return catheter with a blood inlet port, and tubing that couples the blood outlet port to the blood inlet port. Apparatus is also provided for occluding the external carotid artery to prevent reversal of flow into the internal carotid artery. The pressure differential between the artery and the vein provides reverse flow through the artery, thereby flushing emboli. A blood filter may optionally be included in-line with the tubing to filter emboli from blood reperfused into the patient.

Compositions that promote and/or maintain cardiovascular health through the treatment of one or more cardiovascular diseases are provided. Also provided are methods for using compositions that promote and/or maintain cardiovascular health through the prevention, stabilization, reversal and/or treatment of coronary artery disease and/or cerebrovascular disease. Such compositions may be used independently to promote and/or maintain cardiovascular health or used in combination with one or more other compositions used in the treatment of various other disease states common to aging and/or a health deteriorating condition.

Methods and apparatus are provided for removing emboli during an angioplasty, stenting or surgical procedure comprising a catheter having an occlusion element, an aspiration lumen, and a blood outlet port in communication with the lumen, a guide wire having a balloon, a venous return catheter with a blood inlet port, and tubing that couples the blood outlet port to the blood inlet port. Apparatus is also provided for occluding the external carotid artery to prevent reversal of flow into the internal carotid artery. The pressure differential between the artery and the vein provides reverse flow through the artery, thereby flushing emboli. A blood filter may optionally be included in-line with the tubing to filter emboli from blood reperfused into the patient.

Methods and devices are disclosed for detecting vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque, or plaque at risk of reducing blood flow in a vessel, by identifying a region of elevated temperature along a living vessel wall. The disclosure that human atherosclerotic plaque with measurable temperature heterogeneity has the morphological characteristics of plaque that is likely to ulcerate provides a new and sensitive technique for detecting and treating these dangerous plaques before myocardial infarction and its consequences occur. The disclosed methods are advantageous over conventional plaque detection techniques because they are capable of differentiating between those plaques that are at great risk of rupture, fissure, or ulceration, and consequent thrombosis and occlusion of the artery, and those that are not presently at risk. Infrared heat-sensing catheters useful for identifying potentially fatal arterial plaques in patients with disease of the coronary or other arteries are also described. In some embodiments a coherent infrared fiber optic bundle is employed to radially and longitudinally explore a luminal wall to identify inflamed, heat-producing, atherosclerotic plaque. Certain other methods and devices are disclosed which are particularly suited for non-invasively identifying and then monitoring the progression or amelioration of an inflamed plaque in a patient, and for monitoring for onset of inflammation in an implanted arteriovenous graft. Also disclosed are thermocouple basket catheters and thermistor basket catheters which are also capable of detecting temperature heterogeneity along a vessel wall.

A method is provided for arterial intervention on a patient that has the steps of obtaining digital image data of the patient's artery from a medical imaging system where the artery has lesions arising from arterial disease, generating a 3D model from this image data, registering the 3D model to an image of the artery that has been visualized in real-time upon an interventional system, navigating an angioplasty delivery system to the artery utilizing this registered 3D model, and using the angioplasty delivery system to treat the artery. Preferably, the digital image data is cardiac image data, the artery is a coronary artery, and the angioplasty delivery system is a stent and stent delivery system. In another aspect of this invention, it provides a system for arterial intervention that has a medical imaging system for obtaining digital image data of at least one of the patient's arteries, an image generation system for generating a 3D model from the image data, an interventional system for visualizing an image of the artery in real-time, a workstation for registering the 3D model to this image, and an angioplasty delivery system that can be navigated to the artery utilizing the registered 3D model.

The system and method of the present invention relates to using spectroscopy, for example, Raman spectroscopic methods for diagnosis of tissue conditions such as vascular disease or cancer. In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a system for measuring tissue includes a fiber optic probe having a proximal end, a distal end, and a diameter of 2 mm or less. This small diameter allows the system to be used for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease or other small lumens or soft tissue with minimal trauma. A delivery optical fiber is included in the probe coupled at the proximal end to a light source. A filter for the delivery fibers is included at the distal end. The system includes a collection optical fiber (or fibers) in the probe that collects Raman scattered radiation from tissue, the collection optical fiber is coupled at the proximal end to a detector. A second filter is disposed at the distal end of the collection fibers. An optical lens system is disposed at the distal end of the probe including a delivery waveguide coupled to the delivery fiber, a collection waveguide coupled to the collection fiber and a lens.

The present invention relates to methods and compositions for symptom-based differential diagnosis, prognosis, and determination of treatment regimens in subjects. In particular, the invention relates to the use of biomarkers, either individually or in combinations with one another to rule in or out diseases of the aorta and its branches, most particularly aortic aneurysm and/or aortic dissection, and for risk stratification in such conditions. Preferred markers include one or more of creatine kinase-BB (CK-BB), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB), acidic calponin, basic calponin, B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), NT-proBNP, proBNP, BNP_79-108, BNP_3-108, caldesmon, caspase-3, D-dimer, soluble elastin fragments, endothelial cell-selective adhesion molecule (ESAM), fibrillin-1, heart-type fatty acid binding protein, MMP-9, myeloperoxidase, myoglobin, smooth muscle myosin, smooth muscle myosin heavy chain, TIMP-1, free cardiac troponin I, complexed cardiac troponin I, free and complexed cardiac troponin I, free cardiac troponin T, complexed cardiac troponin T, and free and complexed cardiac troponin T, and preferred assays are configured to detect these markers.

The invention relates to highly concentrated DHA and EPA formulations in a soft gel capsule. A capsule may contain at least 80% omega-3 fatty acids, salts or derivatives thereof, where EPA and DHA are present in relative amounts of greater than or equal to 3:1 or less than or equal to 1:3, and constitute at least 75% to greater than 95% of the total fatty acids present in the capsule. Capsules of the invention may be provided in a blister package so as to provide clean and protected oils that are easy to travel with. Compliance is improved with one-pill-a-day dosing and the days of the week imprinted on the foil packing. Anitoxidant protection may be provided by rosemary and vitamin C. The invention also provides a methods of treatment, modulation or prophalaxis of coronary disease, altering serum LDL-cholesterol and/or HDL-cholesterol, lowering serum triglycerides, lowering blood pressure, pulse rate, altering the activity of the blood coagulation factor VII complex, mild hypertension, protection from cyclosporine toxicity in kidney transplant, rheumatoid arthritis, development and progression of retinopathy, hypertriglyceridemia, and neurological disorders in a subject.

A system for the treatment of lower extremity arterial chronic total occlusion (CTO) incorporates remote access of the guide-wire, at least one specifically shaped catheter, and a wire-capture dilation balloon catheter. A capture balloon catheter serves to capture the wire used to traverse the CTO. The capture balloon has a lumen with two axial openings and a radial opening. The capture balloon enters the vascular body from a first opening along a first guide-wire until the balloon is adjacent the CTO. A second guide-wire is advanced from a second opening in the vascular body that is located on an opposite side of the CTO. After the first guide-wire is removed, the second guide-wire is advanced through the funnel-shaped opening in the balloon, then through the radial opening of the lumen and through the lumen so as to advance out of the first opening of the vascular body. A conventional treatment balloon can then be advanced on the second guide-wire to the CTO for treatment.

Non-invasive methods for detecting arterial disease in vivo include obtaining acoustic signals from a sensor held on an external body region proximate an artery. A complex frequency grid of frequencies and associated lifetimes of the obtained acoustic signals is generated. A predictive model of complex frequencies associated with peak-perturbation acoustic signals attributed to boundary perturbations in vivo that occur with early stage arterial disease is provided. A predictive model of complex frequencies associated with line-perturbation acoustic signals attributed to boundary perturbations in vivo that occur with later stage arterial disease and thickening of arterial junctions is also provided. It is determined whether peak and/or line-perturbation acoustic signals of the predictive models are present to detect whether the subject has arterial disease.

The present disclosure relates to a basket for a catheter designed to be deployed in complex vasculature to optimally treat vascular and arterial disease conditions such as blood clots, blood emboli, and deep vein thrombosis. The basket may comprise a shaft with a plurality of cuts along a portion of its length to form a plurality of tines that provide support for a plurality of porous tubes to form the limbs of the basket. The limbs of the basket expand radially away from the longitudinal axis of the basket when the longitudinal length of the basket is reduced. The limbs may also be connected to a drug delivery system, and in this manner, baskets of the present disclosure allow for the use of both mechanical and pharmaceutical means of thrombolysis.

The present invention provides compounds that elevate cellular expression of the ABCA-1 gene, promoting cholesterol efflux from cells and increasing HDL levels in the plasma of a mammal, in particular humans. The compounds are useful for treating coronary artery disease.

A peripheral arterial flow obstruction detection system for providing a predictive diagnosis correlating to the diagnosis peripheral arterial disease. The system includes a host computer and a sensor used to detect and measure a physiological signal from a subject's finger or toe, such as the measurement of a signal using photoplethysmography using a PPG sensor. Sensor data is processed and filtered before being used to calculate a number of time-domain and frequency-domain calculations corresponding to the signal waveform. The calculations are used in a predictive model using a multi-faceted algorithm to provide a predictive diagnosis that is displayed on an indicator such as a monitor.

Novel diphenylethylene compounds and derivatives thereof containing thiazolidinedione or oxazolidinedione moieties are provided which are effective in lowering blood glucose level, serum insulin, triglyceride and free fatty acid levels in animal models of Type II diabetes. The compounds are disclosed as useful for a variety of treatments including the treatment of inflammation, inflammatory and immunological diseases, insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia, coronary artery disease, cancer and multiple sclerosis.

A composition is provided which contains policosanol and B vitamins and which may be used for treating and or reducing hypercholesterolemia and hyperhomocysteinemia diseases, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, LDL/HDL ratio, Lp(a), triglycerides, homocysteine, coronary heart disease (heart attacks and strokes), carotid artery disease, inflammation, deep-vein thrombosis, immunoregulatory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, anxiety, depression, neurodegenerative disorders (such as but not limited to Alzheimers), and/or raise HDL cholesterol in humans and animals. The method comprises administering policosanol and B vitamins which together effectively lower the risk of heart disease. Typically, the administered composition includes about 0.1-10:1 parts by weight of policosanol to B vitamins.