Patent ID: 7179291

Claim:
An assembly for reducing mitral regurgitation, the assembly comprising: an elongated carrier sufficiently flexible to assume a first configuration generally conforming to a coronary sinus upon insertion of said carrier into the coronary sinus, and to assume a straighter second configuration when biased toward the straighter configuration, said carrier having a lumen extending lengthwise therethrough; and an elongated rod comprising five segments disposed end-to-end, said segments comprising a central segment provided with a selected first degree of flexibility which provides rigidity sufficient to reconfigure the mitral annulus, a pair of intermediate segments, one disposed at each end of said central segment, said intermediate segments each being provided with a selected second degree of flexibility which provides more rigidity to said intermediate segments than the rigidity of said central segment, and a pair of outer segments, each disposed at the end of an intermediate segment remote from said central segment, said outer segments each being provided with a third degree of flexibility exceeding the flexibility of said central segment and said intermediate segments, said rod being adapted to be received by the lumen in said carrier; whereby to urge said carrier from the first configuration to the second configuration, to straighten a natural curvature of at least a portion of the coronary sinus in the vicinity of the posterior leaflet of the mitral valve, to move the posterior annulus anteriorly and thereby improve leaflet coaptation and reduce mitral regurgitation.