Patent ID: 8435228

Claim:
An interventional catheter assembly comprising: an elongated flexible catheter sized and configured to be navigated to an internal interventional site and having a guide wire lumen; a controller communicating with the interventional catheter and having a guide wire port for receiving a proximal portion of a guide wire; and a guide wire clamp that, in a closed, actuated condition prevents both rotation and axial translation of a guide wire positioned a distance from the guide wire port; wherein the space between the guide wire port and the guide wire clamp provides a guide wire buffer zone that, when the guide wire is in a clamped condition, accommodates accumulation of the guide wire in an unsupported condition and in curved profiles, thereby accommodating changes in the length of guide wire exposed in the guide wire buffer zone produced by relative axial displacement of a distal end of the catheter with respect to the clamped guide wire.