Technology ID
TAB-2233
Single Channel MRI Guidewire
E-Numbers
E-274-2010-0
Lead Inventor
Sonmez, Merdim (NHLBI)
Co-Inventors
Kocaturk, Ozgur (NHLBI)
Saikus, Christina (NHLBI)
Development Status
In development. Prototype is being built.
Lead IC
NHLBI
ICs
NHLBI
The invention offered for licensing and commercial development is in the field of Interventional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (“iMRI”). More specifically the invention discloses a guidewire for magnetic resonance imaging with a single channel design to reduce complexity and to provide conspicuous tip visibility under MRI. In the design of the present device, the guidewire body includes an antenna formed from a rod and a helical coil coupled together. The helical coil can have multiple windings without a gap between the windings. The rod passes through the windings of the helical coil and is coupled to the helical coil using a conductive joint positioned at an end of the rod and at an end of the helical coil. Insulation can be positioned between the rod and the windings of the helical coil. The configuration allows visibility of the antenna along the length of a rod, except where it enters the windings of the coil. Thus, the tip visibility is enhanced as being separated from the rod.
Commercial Applications
- Interventional cardiology
- MRI guided surgery
Competitive Advantages
- The unique design of the device and its dipole antenna, provide a lower profile guidewire (such as coronary 0.014: guidewire) and it is therefore safer and more convenient to use compared with existing guidewires.
- The modified dipole antenna of the device can combine the distinct tip signal profile typical of loop antennae with the whole-shaft visibility of dipole antennae, all operating on a single receiver channel. This overcomes challenges both of conspicuity and of undesirable coupling of comparable two-channel devices that causes heating.
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