Intravascular Cold Therapy for Vessel Expansion
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current treatments for cardiovascular diseases involving abnormal blood vessel constrictions, such as balloon angioplasty, often lead to elastic recoil, requiring additional support structures or drugs to maintain vessel expansion, which can cause complications.
Innovation Solution
An intravascular medical device with a cold therapy assembly that delivers cryoablation to constricted vessels, ablating smooth muscle cells while preserving structural proteins like elastin and collagen, thereby expanding the vessel without the need for long-term support devices or substances.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If balloon angioplasty is used to expand constricted vessels, then vessel diameter is increased, but elastic recoil occurs causing the vessel to constrict again
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and removes the harmful smooth muscle cells from the vessel wall through cryoablation. By selectively destroying these cells while preserving the structural proteins, the vessel's tendency to recoil is eliminated, allowing the vessel to maintain its expanded diameter without requiring stents or other support structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the thermal parameters applied to the vessel wall by using controlled cryoablation with specific temperature ranges (-40°C to -80°C) and duration. This parameter control allows selective ablation of smooth muscle cells while preserving structural proteins like elastin and collagen, fundamentally altering the vessel's mechanical properties to prevent elastic recoil.
2Stability of the object's composition
If support structures like stents are used to maintain vessel expansion, then elastic recoil is prevented, but device complexity and risk of complications increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention enables the vessel to serve itself by modifying its own tissue composition through cryoablation. The selective destruction of smooth muscle cells creates a vessel wall that naturally resists recoil without requiring external support structures. The intact structural proteins provide the necessary framework for the vessel to maintain its expanded state autonomously.
3Manufacturing precision
If cold therapy is applied to ablate smooth muscle cells, then selective cell destruction is achieved, but precise temperature control is required to avoid denaturing structural proteins
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies local quality by delivering cryoablation energy directly to the vessel wall through contact with the catheter balloon or applicator. This localized application ensures that the extreme cold temperatures are confined to the vessel wall tissue, allowing selective ablation of smooth muscle cells while preventing damage to surrounding tissues and preserving the structural protein framework.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention incorporates temperature sensing and control mechanisms that provide real-time feedback during cryoablation. By monitoring the temperature at the vessel wall interface and adjusting the cooling parameters accordingly, the system maintains temperatures within the therapeutic window that selectively destroys smooth muscle cells while preserving structural proteins like elastin and collagen.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The method effectively increases vessel diameter and reduces elastic recoil, maintaining therapeutic results by removing heat from the vessel wall to ablate smooth muscle cells without denaturing structural proteins, allowing for sustained expansion and improved blood flow.
Implementation Method 1
A distal end of the intravascular medical device includes a cold therapy assembly configured to contact a wall of the vessel and remove heat from the wall of the vessel
Implementation Method 2
A medical device coupled to the intravascular medical device is configured to control the amount of heat removed by the intravascular medical device to ablate smooth muscle cells of the wall of the vessel
Data Source
AI summary
In examples, a cold therapy system includes an intravascular medical device and a therapeutic medical device. The intravascular medical device includes a cold therapy assembly and an elongated member. The cold therapy assembly includes one or more surfaces configured to remove heat from the wall of the vessel. The elongated member is coupled to the cold therapy assembly. The therapeutic medical device is communicatively coupled to the cold therapy assembly and is configured to control the cold therapy assembly to ablate smooth muscle cells of the wall of the vessel without substantially denaturating one or more structural proteins of the wall of the vessel.