Patent ID: 8574660

Claim:
A process for preparing a vascularly inserted catheter having a low-fouling surface on a substrate, the substrate having a surface comprising a polyurethane material, the process comprising (a) treating the substrate surface to improve surface characteristics without significantly altering the bulk physical properties of the article, said treatment comprising contacting the substrate surface with a solvent system to swell the substrate and remove wax or oil from the substrate surface, and (b) forming a grafted polymer layer on the treated substrate surface, the treated surface and the grafted polymer layer, in combination, constituting a low-fouling surface having a fibrinogen adsorption of less than about 125 ng/cm 2 in a fibrinogen binding assay in which the low-fouling surface is incubated for 60 minutes at 37° C. in a composition containing 70 μg/mL fibrinogen derived from human plasma and 1.4 μg/mL I-125 radiolabeled fibrinogen.