Patent ID: 8052701

Claim:
A medical device comprising: a catheter shaft; an elongated rupturing wire deliverable through the catheter shaft and having a predefined shape adapted to rupture a fibrous cap of a vulnerable plaque, wherein the fibrous cap is ruptured when the elongated rupturing wire is pulled against the vulnerable plaque, and an expandable holding device configured to hold the elongated rupturing wire against the vulnerable plaque when in an expanded configuration outside of the catheter shaft; wherein the elongated rupturing wire is not integrally formed with the expandable holding device and when the expandable holding device is in the expanded configuration outside of the catheter shaft a continuous length of the elongated rupturing wire extends both within the catheter shaft and adjacent an outer surface of the expandable holding device such that the elongated rupturing wire is movable relative to the outer surface of the expandable holding device, along an axis of the expandable holding device while the outer surface of expandable holding device is in direct contact with and applies pressure to the elongated rupturing wire laterally with respect to the axis.