Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) and the Mayo Clinic recently filed a joint patent application for a new ‘self-centering’ catheter device as a result of a collaborative development deal the two announced last March, according to a Twin Cities Business Magazine report.
The new device is being designed to help improve heart valve replacement surgery by improving the process of threading guide wires through shrunken and often times shifted aortic valve openings in calcified hearts, according to the report.
Currently, surgeons must probe along the surface of the valve with the guide wire to find the opening, requiring constant X-ray imaging and anesthesia and risking possible damage to the valve and arteries through the dislodgment of calcified debris, TCBMag reports.
The jointly developed catheter is designed to center over the opening prior to advancing and includes a covered basket created to self-center over the opening by aligning with the direction of blood flow, according to the report.
Other collaborative projects between the two include using Boston Scientific’s Precision Spectra spinal cord stimulator to block neural signals that cause shortness of breath and muscle fatigue in heart failure patients.
A study of the device aims to explore the efficacy of blocking signals from organs to the brain and whether or not it can help improve control of the heart and vasculature for those patients, TCBMag reports.
Both parties announced the program last March, revealing approximately a dozen new products in the pipeline, including the centering catheter for replacement heart valves and the heart failure application for the Precision Spectra SCS.
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