Patent ID: 7670302

Claim:
An intravascular guidewire selectively shapeable by a user and configured for navigation through a vessel lumen of a patient, the guidewire comprising: an elongate core wire comprising a constant diameter portion and a tapered portion extending distally from the constant diameter portion to a distal end of the core wire, at least the tapered portion formed of a super elastic nickel titanium alloy which is not independently shapeable by forces normally subjected to during a medical procedure; and a polymer jacket comprising a shape memory polymer attached to and surrounding the tapered portion of the core wire formed of a super elastic nickel titanium alloy, the polymer jacket having a length extending proximally from the distal end of the core wire to at least the constant diameter portion, wherein the polymer jacket is in continuous contact with the core wire throughout a majority of the length of the polymer jacket, the polymer jacket being more stiff than the portion of the core wire formed of a super elastic nickel titanium alloy which it surrounds; wherein the tapered portion of the core wire surrounded by the polymer jacket is bent into a curved shape, wherein the polymer jacket overcomes biasing forces imposed by the elongate core wire which tend to straighten the tapered portion of the core wire from the curved shape such that the stiffness of the polymer jacket retains the tapered portion of the elongate core wire in the curved shape in the vessel lumen of the patient; wherein the shape memory polymer is one from a subset of polymers which are characterized by their responsiveness to heating at or above a glass transition temperature of the shape memory polymer in order to independently transform the shape memory polymer between a first shape and a second shape; wherein the glass transition temperature of the shape memory polymer is greater than the body temperature of the patient such that the curved shape imparted in the elongate core wire is sustained when the guidewire is navigated through the vessel lumen of the patient.