Abstract: A flexible high radial strength stent comprising one or more flex cells and primary cells. The primary cells comprising elongated members having first and second ends and extending in a circumferential direction around an axis and curving in two opposite directions transverse to the circumferential direction. The elongated members are joined to one another on their first ends forming cusps. The flex cell may comprise a member in the shape of a U, V, ellipse, rhombus, parallelogram, or other similar shape. The flex cell has two ends, or in the case of the parallelogram two vertices, each of which is attached to the adjacent second end of a neighboring elongated member.

Abstract: A method and device for endoluminally bypassing blood flow through an aneurysm in the vicinity of a branched blood vessel, having a main branch, a first branch, and a second branch.

Abstract: A jogging exercise stroller having a pair of pivotally connected arms. A user encounters greater resistance pivoting the arms in the direction of motion of the stroller than pivoting the arms in the opposite direction.

Abstract: A method for percutaneously inserting an improved pediatric intra-aortic balloon. The improvement comprises a soft tip having a self occluding lumen capable of accommodating a guide wire. A removable pull tube is disposed within the self occluding lumen to prevent occlusion of the self occluding lumen. The catheter is designed without a guide wire lumen so as to be capable of rapid inflation and deflation of the balloon. The method comprises the following steps:(a)inserting an angiographic needle into the aorta;(b) passing the guide wire through the needle into the aorta;(c) removing the needle;(d) disposing the pull tube about the proximal end of the guide wire;(e) removing the pull tube from the self occluding lumen;(f) advancing the catheter into the aorta;(g) removing the guide wire from the aorta;(h) advancing the catheter up the aortic passageway to a position appropriate for pumping.

Abstract: A method and device for increasing the horizontal resolution of both a color flat panel display and a cathode ray tube (CRT) display. The method involves fine horizontal positioning of pixels according to information encoded in the color. Since pixel size is not changed, the display and processing bandwidth requirement is not increased. For the case of the color flat panel display, the fact that each pixel is constructed of a horizontal stripe of 3 primary color sub-pixels is utilized. Complex color information is spread across adjacent pixels to increase the apparent horizontal resolution by a factor of three. For the case of the CRT, a clock multiplier is used to multiply the video clock frequency by three. The apparent horizontal resolution of the CRT is increased by a factor of three by delaying pixels a varying multiple of this high clock speed.

Abstract: An improved intra-aortic balloon catheter with a balloon membrane, a tip, and a co-lumen extruded tube having an outer lumen and an inner lumen between the inner and outer surfaces of the co-lumen extruded tube. The portion of the co-lumen extruded tube that defines the inner lumen and which is disposed within the balloon membrane is made from polyimide, a lubricous material, to facilitate guide wire tracking. The polyimide inner tube portion demonstrates good kink resistance and flexural stiffness. In a first alternative embodiment of the invention the co-lumen tube comprises an outer tube with an inner tube embedded in the wall of said outer tube. In a second alternative embodiment of the invention a longitudinal signal pathway is provided.

Abstract: An improved pulse oximeter incorporating an innovative method for exposing a patient's extremity to electromagnetic radiation of two wavelengths, e.g., a red wavelength and an IR wavelength, and detecting the absorbance of the extremity at each of the wavelengths, said method comprising the steps of:(a) generating overlapping first and second pulse trains of electromagnetic radiation having first and second wavelengths and having the same frequency but differing in phase by 90 degrees;(b) exposing the extremity to the first and second pulses;(c) producing an electrical signal corresponding to the electromagnetic radiation intensity of both the first and second pulses added together;(d) amplifying said electrical signal using a tuned amplifier; and(e) demodulating said electrical signal using the first pulse and second pulse, independently, as reference signals.

Abstract: A memory unit capable of storing calibration data attached to a probe portion of a pulse oximeter and a connector portion of an intra-aortic balloon catheter.

Abstract: An apparatus and post-processing method for reversibly converting an existing electrocardiograph (ECG) erase bar waveform display to a scrolling waveform display. This conversion is accomplished by swapping the positions of the portions of the waveform that are displayed to the right and left of the erase bar in an erase bar waveform display each time a new heartbeat data point is displayed. The swapping function is accomplished by delaying the display of the data points to the right of the erase bar by a time period x and by delaying the display of data points to the left of the erase by x plus the amount of time required to scan an entire row. x is the amount of time required to scan all of the data points displayed to the right of the erase bar on the erase bar waveform display.

Abstract: A stent/graft catheter delivery handle comprising a housing and a trigger pivotally connected to the housing on one end of the trigger. Squeezing the free end of the trigger towards the handle housing shifts a pawl, which is engaged with grooves on the outer surface of a stent/graft delivery catheter, longitudinally along the length of the catheter. Shifting of the pawl has the effect of retracting the sheath of the catheter relative to the plunger (inner lumen assembly) of the catheter and thus deploying a stent/graft stored in a proximal end of the catheter.

Abstract: A closed chest intra-aortic balloon catheter based ventricular assist device comprising an intra-aortic balloon (IAB) catheter and a pumping chamber having a smaller diameter portion and a more proximal larger diameter portion. The IAB catheter balloon membrane is disposed within the larger diameter portion. The entire device is inserted percutaneously into the aorta of a patient such that the tip of the IAB catheter is just distal to the left subclavian artery and the distal end of the smaller diameter portion is in the left ventricle. The smaller diameter portion has an intake valve at its distal end which acts as a one-way valve allowing blood to flow into the lumen of the pumping chamber but not out of it. The pumping chamber has one or more outlet valves. As the balloon membrane deflates, pressure in the pumping chamber drops below that in the left ventricle, and as a result, blood flows into the pumping chamber.

Abstract: A single-piece bifurcated graft for insertion into the femoral artery and further into the aorta with approximately one half of the graft inverted inside out after positioning within the artery. There is no central section like other bifurcated grafts. Instead, two bifurcated sections are joined at the top. Upon introduction, the graft is attached to the aortic wall in the middle section, the vicinity of the renal arteries, and the inversion process takes place. This process allows deployment of the second half of the graft into its final inverted position. While stents are located only at the openings of the graft, additional stents may be deployed inside the graft if necessary.