Endovascular
catheter-based technologies have revolutionized the treatment of
complex vascular pathology. Catheters and endovascular devices that can
be maneuvered through tortuous arterial anatomy have enabled minimally
invasive treatment in the peripheral arterial system. Although
mechanical factors drive an interventionalist's choice of catheters and
sheaths, these decisions are mostly made qualitative and based on
personal experience and procedural pattern recognition. However, a
definitive quantitative characterization of endovascular tools that are
best suited for specific peripheral arterial beds is currently lacking.
To establish a foundation for quantitative tool selection in the
neurovascular and lower extremity peripheral arterial beds, we developed
a nonlinear beam theory method to quantify catheter and sheath flexural
rigidity. We applied this assessment to a sampling of commonly utilized
commercially available peripheral arterial catheters and sheaths. Our
results demonstrated that catheters and sheaths adopted for existing
practice patterns to treat peripheral arterial disease in the lower
extremities and neurovascular system have different but overlapping
ranges of flexural rigidities that were not sensitive to luminal
diameters within each procedure type. Our approach provides an accurate
and effective method for characterization of flexural rigidity
properties of catheters and sheaths, and a foundation for developing
future technologies tailored for specific peripheral arterial systems.
No comments:
Post a Comment