Abstract:
The invented guidewire relates to improvements in a magnetically navigable medical guidewire to enable passage through an occluded or partially occluded vessel. The guidewire comprises an elongate wire having a proximal end and a distal end, wherein the distal end further comprises a magnetically responsive element and a helical thread formed on the tip. The distal end of the guidewire may be preferably aligned substantially in the direction of an applied magnetic field, after which the proximal end of the guidewire may be torqued to rotate the threaded tip while remaining aligned with the applied magnetic field and cause the tip to screw through the blockage in the occluded vessel.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60607,614, filed Sep. 7, 2004, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     This invention relates to guidewires for facilitating the navigation of medical devices through the vasculature, and in particular to guidewires adapted for passing occlusions in the vasculature.  
         [0003]     Navigation of a conventional guidewire involves rotating or applying a torque to the proximal end of the guidewire repeatedly to rotate the distal tip while the wire is pushed. This action is repeated until, by trial and error, the tip enters the desired vessel branch. In navigating guidewires in the vasculature of the body, an important criterion is that the tip of the guidewire be flexible enough to negotiate the sharp turns that are necessary to reach the target area for medical intervention. At the same time, in some medical procedures, particularly in coronary occlusion, flexibility can become a disadvantage when the tip is at the position of a total occlusion. Physicians presently attempt to manipulate the proximal end of the guidewire in a way to punch through such an occlusion. Typically, the flexible guidewire will buckle and fail to provide the passage through the occlusion, which would be necessary in order to implant a stent. Furthermore, after the guidewire has made several bends, the guidewire becomes increasingly difficult to control, requiring repeated attempts to enter a desired vessel branch or gain access through an occlusion. This trial and error method can frustrate the physician and cause additional wall contact and potential trauma.  
         [0004]     To address these and other difficulties, magnetically navigable guidewires have been developed which can be controlled with the application of an external magnetic field. An example of magnetically navigable guidewire is disclosed in Werp et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,818 (incorporated in its entirety herein by reference). The user can advance the magnetically navigable guide wire into vessels with little or no contact between the end of the wire and the vessel wall. When the distal end of the guidewire is adjacent the vessel of interest, the user operates a magnetic system to apply a magnetic field (preferably with the aid of a computerized user interface) to deflect the wire tip to align with the vessel side branch. The magnet system can be made sufficiently accurate to direct the distal end of the guidewire into the brach on the first effort, eliminating the trial and error of manually operated guidewires and thereby reducing or eliminating trauma to the vessel wall. The deflection of the guidewire tip is controlled by the external magnets in magnetic navigation, and in normal use, the physician does not need to apply torque to the guidewire. However, while prior magnetically navigable guidewires are very effective at navigating through tortuous paths in the vasculature of a subject, these guidewires do not address the challenge of crossing or pushing through an occluded or partially occluded vessel in the vasculature of a subject&#39;s body.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     The present invention relates to improvements in the construction of magnetically navigable medical guidewires to facilitate passage through an occulated or partially occulated vessel. Generally, a preferred embodiment of a guidewire constructed in accordance with the principles of this invention comprises an elongate corewire having a proximal end and a distal end. A coil may surround at least the distal portion of the corewire. The distal end further comprises a magnetically responsive element and a helical thread formed on the tip. This magnetically responsive element preferably comprises a permanent magnetic material, but may alternatively comprise a permeable magnetic material. The magnetically responsive element is enclosed in a radiopaque sleeve at the distal end of the guidewire. Attached or integral to the sleeve, is a helical thread formed in the tip of the distal end of the guidewire. The guide wire is configured so that the distal end of the guidewire can be preferably oriented in the direction of an applied magnetic field. Once it is magnetically oriented, the proximal end of the guidewire may be torqued to rotate the threaded tip aligned with the field and cause the tip to screw through a blockage in an occluded or partially occluded vessel.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0006]      FIG. 1  is a side elevation view of a preferred embodiment guidewire constructed according to the principles of this invention;  
         [0007]      FIG. 2  is a side elevation view of an alternate construction of the preferred embodiment of a guidewire according to the principles of this invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008]     A first preferred embodiment of a magnetically navigable medical guidewire is indicated generally as  20  in  FIG. 1 . The guidewire  20  has a proximal end  22  and a distal end  24  and comprises a flexible core wire  26  extending from the proximal end substantially to the distal end. The core wire  26  can be made of Nitinol or other suitable material. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the proximal end  22  of the guidewire  20  includes a conventional connector  28  having a proximal landing  30 , to which a core wire  32  is attached. The attachment of the core wire  26  is preferably done by a coil  34  extending over the core wire  32  and the proximal landing  30 . The distal end of the core wire  26  is attached in the same manner to a metallic cylinder or sleeve  36 .  
         [0009]     The cylinder or sleeve  36  may be made of, or at least plated with a radiopaque material so that the distal end of the guidewire  20  can be seen in x-ray imaging. The sleeve  36  is preferably made of gold, a gold alloy, or other biocompatible material. Disposed within a hollow section of the sleeve  36  is a magnetically responsive element  38 , which may alternatively be embedded within the sleeve  36 . The magnetically responsive element  38 , which can be made of a permanent magnetic material or a permeable magnetic material, is disposed inside the sleeve  36 . The magnetically responsive element  38  is of sufficient size and shape to cause the distal end portion of the guidewire  20  to align in a selected direction with a magnetic field applied from an external source magnet. Suitable permanent magnetic materials include neodymium-iron-boron (Nd—Fe—B). Suitable permeable magnetic materials include magnetic stainless steel, such as a 303 or 304 stainless steel, or other alloys such as Hiperco. The size and material of the magnetically responsive element  38  are selected so that the distal end portion of the guide wire can be reoriented by the application of a magnetic field of no more than about 0.20 Tesla. In the preferred embodiment, the length of the magnetically responsive element  38  is preferably about 2.2 millimeter, but may alternatively be any length in the range of 0.5 to 5 millimeters.  
         [0010]     In the first preferred embodiment, the distal end of the sleeve  36  is solid and has an external helical thread  40  formed in the tip of the sleeve. Alternatively, a solid section  36   a  may be mounted on the distal end of the sleeve  36  and the ends of the sleeve and section  36   a  are secured to each other, such as by welding. The helical thread  40  may be formed by thread rolling, chasing, etching or other suitable process. In the preferred embodiment, the helical thread  40  may comprise one to ten complete thread turns over a predetermined length in the range of 0.5 to 4 millimeters, and preferably has three to four turns over a length of about 2.2 millimeters. By way of example only, and without limiting the invention the guidewire  20  of the preferred embodiment has a total length of about 180 cm.  
         [0011]     The guidewire  20  is sufficiently stiff that it can be advanced in the selected direction by pushing the proximal end of the guidewire  20 , yet flexible enough that the guidewire can be deflected by an applied magnetic field to gain entry to a vessel branch. Guidewire deflection can be measured by holding the wire at a set distance proximal to the tip such as 1 cm, and applying a magnetic field of known magnitude, H, at varying angles to the tip until the maximum tip deflection is observed. For example, in the Stereotaxis Niobe™ magnetic navigation system, an external field of 0.08 Tesla can be applied within the subject in any direction. The maximum deflection angle of the guidewire in a 0.08 Tesla field is thus one way to characterize the guidewire performance in the Niobe™ magnetic navigation system. The inventors have determined that in most circumstances a minimum tip deflection of about 30 degrees is desired for navigation of the guidewire according to the principles of the present invention.  
         [0012]     In operation, the distal tip of the guidewire  20  in the presence of an applied magnetic field will tend to align with the field direction to the extent allowed by the flexibility of the guidewire. When the distal end has been deflected to a desired orientation, the proximal end  22  of the guidewire  20  is torqued or rotated about its longitudinal axis, to cause the distal end  24  of the guidewire to rotate or spin on an axis substantially in alignment with the field direction. Because of the tendency of the device tip to stay aligned with the field, rotating the proximal end of the wire about its axis will cause the distal tip to execute a similar rotation, while maintaining its alignment with the field. This property of “twisting in place” is a direct consequence of magnetic actuation, and is a significant advantage over conventional guidewires in which rotation of the tip is not so constrained. The helical thread  40  on the tip of the guidewire distal end  24  will accordingly spin or rotate about the longitudinal axis of the distal end  24  held in a substantially fixed alignment by the external magnetic field. By gently pushing on the proximal end  22  while rotating the guidewire  20 , the distal tip  24  can screw or drill its way through an occluded vessel. The rotation may be produced either manually or with the use of a motor or suitable mechanism.  
         [0013]     An alternate construction of a preferred embodiment of a guidewire, in accordance with the principles of this invention, is indicated as  20 ′ in  FIG. 2 . Guidewire  20 ′ is similar in construction go guidewire  20 , and corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings. The guidewire  10 ′ has a proximal end  22  and a distal end  24 . As also described above, the alternate construction guidewire  20 ′ comprises a flexible core wire  26 ′ extending from the proximal end substantially to the distal end. The proximal end  22  of the guidewire  20  includes a conventional connector  28  having a proximal landing  30 , to which a core wire  32  is attached. The core wire  26  can be made of Nitinol or other suitable material, and may further comprise a wound coil  34  over the length of the core wire  26 . The distal end of the core wire  26  attaches to a magnetically responsive element  38  that is preferably disposed within a metallic cup or encapsulated by a metallic coating, of a gold alloy or other suitable material. The core wire  26  and the encapsulated magnetically responsive element  38  are surrounded or covered by a flexible tube or jacket  50 , made of a polymer or metal. The flexible tube  50  connects to a proximal landing  30  of a connector  28  on the proximal end  22  of the guidewire, and to a metallic distal tip  40   a  at the distal end  24  of the guidewire. The connection of the flexible tube  50  may be obtained by laser welding, adhesive bonding, or other suitable joining process. The metallic distal tip  40   a  comprises a helical thread as described above, and is preferably made of gold, a gold alloy, or other biocompatible material. By way of example only, and without limiting the invention the guidewire of the preferred embodiment has a total length of about 180 cm.  
         [0014]     The above-described embodiments are intended to be illustrative only. For example, the mechanical pushing force applied to the proximal end of the guidewire may also be provided by using a motor that is controlled by a surgeon. Likewise, more than one magnetically responsive element could be incorporated in the guidewire, and at least one magnetically responsive element could be mechanically flexible and could be made of a material of high magnetic permeability. Some or all of the threaded elements could also be made of a magnetic material. There are also numerous types of magnetic surgery procedures for which the guidewire described and the method of controlling the guidewire are important. The invention can be readily adapted so that a surgeon, under guidance from an imaging system, uses the magnetic system to negotiate otherwise difficult turns and movements of the surgical device and to gain passage through an occulated vessel. It will also be recognized that many of the inventive methods and apparatuses may be used in conjunction with any coil in a non-resonant circuit that applies a magnetic force on a suspended or embedded object that is magnetically moveable. Many other modifications falling within the spirit of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the scope of the invention should be determined by reference to the claims below and the full range of equivalents in accordance with applicable law.