Magnetic Stent Guide Wire Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional guide wires and catheters face difficulties in navigating through the body's vasculature due to stiffness, making it hard to deliver medical devices like stents, and existing magnetically navigable systems are not optimized for flexibility and control, especially when carrying stents.
Innovation Solution
A magnetically navigable guide wire with a flexible distal end and strategically placed magnetically responsive elements, allowing orientation within an external magnetic field for precise navigation, and a guide element for balloon or stent delivery catheters with magnetic elements for steering.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the guide wire is made stiffer to support therapeutic device delivery, then the ability to deliver stents is improved, but the ability to navigate through tortuous vasculature deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The guide wire is divided into segments with different stiffness characteristics: a stiff proximal portion for supporting therapeutic device delivery and a flexible distal portion for navigating tortuous vasculature. This segmentation allows each portion to perform its specialized function optimally.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the guide wire have locally optimized properties: the proximal portion has higher stiffness for structural support, while the distal portion has lower stiffness for navigation. This local quality differentiation resolves the contradiction between overall stiffness and local flexibility.
2Measurement precision
If magnetically responsive elements are added for magnetic navigation, then navigation precision is improved, but device complexity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical rotation and torque application with magnetic field actuation for navigation. Magnetically responsive elements replace the need for repeated manual manipulation, improving precision while the magnetic system handles the complexity externally.
Solution Approach 2:
Magnetically responsive elements serve as intermediaries between the external magnetic navigation system and the guide wire. These elements translate external magnetic fields into precise guide wire orientation, improving navigation precision while isolating the complexity of magnetic control from the guide wire structure.
3Ease of operation
If manual rotation is used to navigate the guide wire, then the guide wire can be positioned, but repeated attempts cause vessel wall trauma
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical rotation with magnetic field actuation for guide wire positioning. This substitution eliminates the trial-and-error manual manipulation that causes vessel wall trauma, achieving positioning without repeated attempts.
Solution Approach 2:
The magnetic navigation system performs preliminary positioning actions before therapeutic device delivery, accurately placing the guide wire in the target vessel on the first attempt. This preliminary precise positioning prevents subsequent failed attempts that would cause vessel wall trauma.
4Ease of operation
If the distal end is made more flexible to negotiate sharp turns, then navigation capability is improved, but control over the guide wire deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The guide wire is segmented into a flexible distal portion for navigation and a stiffer proximal portion for control. This segmentation allows the distal end to negotiate sharp turns independently while the proximal end maintains control stability.
Solution Approach 2:
Magnetically responsive elements in the distal portion act as intermediaries that receive magnetic actuation signals and translate them into precise movements. This intermediary system maintains control despite the flexible distal geometry, as magnetic fields can precisely actuate even flexible structures.
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
Enhances the ability to accurately and efficiently navigate guide wires and catheters through the body, reducing trauma to the vessel wall and improving the delivery of stents by using flexible materials and strategically placed magnets for precise magnetic field alignment.
Implementation Method 1
a first magnetically responsive element on the distal end of the elongate wire and one or more additional magnetically responsive elements spaced apart from the first magnetically responsive element and disposed on the more flexible portion of the elongate wire. Due to its flexibility, the portion of the elongate wire adjacent the distal end carrying the magnetically responsive elements can substantially orient relative to an externally applied magnetic field
Data Source
AI summary
A guide wire for magnetically navigating a medical device through in a subject's body comprising an elongate wire having a proximal and distal end, a portion adjacent the distal end that is more flexible than the more proximal portions of the elongate wire, and a first magnetically responsive element on the distal end of the elongate wire. The guide wire further comprises one or more magnetically responsive elements spaced apart from the first magnetically responsive element and disposed on the more flexible portion of the elongate wire. The guide wire provides for bending or deflecting the distal end of the stent, to provide easier navigation of the distal end of the guide wire and the stent through the vasculature of a subject body.