Patent ID: 8080026

Claim:
An angioplasty catheter comprising: a catheter body having a proximal end and a distal end; a radially expandable shell near the distal end of the catheter body; an external structure carried over but unattached to the shell, wherein the external structure has a distal end fixedly attached to the catheter body at a location distal to the radially expansible shell so that a proximal end of the external structure is drawn distally axially and/or rotates relative to the catheter body as the shell is radially expanded; and an attachment structure having a proximal end fixedly attached to the catheter body and a distal end attached to the proximal end of the external structure, wherein the attachment structure is sufficiently sized and compliant to accommodate movements of the external structure relative to the catheter body which are produced by the external structure as it is expanded by the shell wherein the attachment structure comprises an elastic polymeric compliance tube having an outer diameter and an inner diameter that extends over the catheter body, wherein the distal end of the compliance tube does not extend over the radially expansible shell.