Abstract: This invention relates to devices for navigating passageways in a body, and in particular, to a steerable catheter that can be used to navigate the tortuous anatomy of a body's vasculature. In one embodiment of the invention the deflectable catheter comprises an inner catheter body having a first strut spine member and a cantilevered second strut tang member. An outer catheter body is cooperatively associated with the second strut tang member and an actuator is cooperatively associated with the first strut spine member. The actuator is slideably engaged within the outer catheter body.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to the fabrication of a test apparatus and the test apparatus itself. The test apparatus is designed to be a component used in a durability/fatigue testing unit. One such test apparatus made in accordance with the present invention is a life-size model of an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm made with any rapid prototyping process that creates solid freeform parts with flexible material. A preferred rapid prototyping process used to make the AAA model in accordance with the present invention is the process known as selective laser sintering (SLS), while the preferred material used in said process is an elastomeric polymer.

Abstract: The present disclosure concerns a delivery system for delivering a medically useful payload through the vasculature to a site of interest in the patient's body. The medically useful payload may be a therapeutic device, such as a stent, and it may be a diagnostic tool, such as an imaging device. Owing to its structural attributes, the presently-inventive delivery system is well suited for carrying medical payload to and through vessel curvature and to branched regions (i.e., bifurcations) in same. Also, the device is well-suited to traveling through a vessel over a guiding element, such as a guidewire, which itself exhibits curvature.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a delivery system for delivering a device for closing a passageway in a body, for example a patent foramen ovale (PFO) in a heart. The delivery system has an elongate member having a proximal and distal end. A deflectable needle assembly having luminal and abluminal surfaces is slideably engaged within the elongate member. An actuator is slideabley engaged within the elongate member and attached to the needle tip assembly such that translational movement of the actuator causes deflection of the deflectable needle assembly.

Abstract: A device and method for deploying a mechanical closure device for closing a passageway in a body, for example a patent foramen ovale (PFO) in a heart. The deployment device has a first tubular structure having proximal and distal ends. A second tubular structure is substantially coaxial to and slideably engaged within the first tubular structure. The second tubular structure has a first substantially linear shape when constrained within the first tubular structure, and a second curvilinear shape when telescopically extended from the distal end of the first tubular structure. A third tubular structure is substantially coaxial to and slideably engaged within the second tubular structure. The third tubular structure is configured to provide sufficient rigidity to push the mechanical closure device from the distal end of the second tubular structure, and provide sufficient flexibility to assume a curvilinear shape when deflected by the second tubular structure.

Abstract: The present invention is a method and device for closing a passageway in a body, for example a patent foramen ovale (PFO) in a heart, and related methods of using such closure devices for closing the passageway. The closure device includes a closure line having a first and a second end. A first expandable device is connected to the first end of the closure line. A second expandable device is located along the second end of the closure line, and is capable of sliding along the closure line in one direction while preventing sliding movement in the opposite direction. Alternatively the second closure line is fixed along the second end of the closure line.

Abstract: A stent having mechanically interlocked strut sections and methods of making the same. Sets of longitudinally adjacent strut sections have closed ends that are mechanically interlocked by laser cut pairs of corresponding male and female components. The contours of the male and female components generally preclude the respective male components received therein from escaping from the female components even as the dynamics of the vascular or other system within which the stent is placed urges a male component on an opposite side of a set out of a corresponding female component. Rotational movement of the mechanically interlocked male components remains generally unimpeded. Designated pairs of mechanically interlocked strut sections within a set of longitudinally adjacent strut sections are diametrically opposed, or otherwise oriented, relative to one another which keeps the sections together.