Abstract: A medical device for retrieval of kidney stone fragments from a urinary tract is provided. The medical device has a plurality of magnets arranged within a flexible sheath forming a flexible wire. The magnets are magnetically attached end-to-end and arranged with their magnetic polarities alternating in direction. The magnetization direction of each of the magnets is orthogonal to the length axis of the flexible wire. A removable inner stylet is situated within the flexible sheath allowing for modifiable flexibility of the wire. The medical device is dimensioned to be introduced into the urinary tract and standard endoscopic devices. The medical device is further dimensioned to allow for the wire with magnetically attached stone fragments to be retrieved from the urinary tract. The magnetic field along the length axis is sufficient to attract to the surface of the flexible wire superparamagnetic nanoparticles which have bound themselves to kidney stone fragments.

Abstract: A medical device for retrieval of kidney stone fragments from a urinary tract is provided. The medical device has a plurality of magnets arranged within a flexible sheath forming a flexible wire. The magnets are magnetically attached end-to-end and arranged with their magnetic polarities alternating in direction. The magnetization direction of each of the magnets is orthogonal to the length axis of the flexible wire. A removable inner stylet is situated within the flexible sheath allowing for modifiable flexibility of the wire. The medical device is dimensioned to be introduced into the urinary tract and standard endoscopic devices. The medical device is further dimensioned to allow for the wire with magnetically attached stone fragments to be retrieved from the urinary tract. The magnetic field along the length axis is sufficient to attract to the surface of the flexible wire superparamagnetic nanoparticles which have bound themselves to kidney stone fragments.

Abstract: A medical device and method for detection, retrieval or elimination of disease-associated toxins and biomarkers is provided. A plurality of magnets is arranged within a flexible sheath forming a flexible wire. The magnets are magnetically attached to each other, end-to-end, and arranged with their magnetic polarities alternating in direction. The magnetization direction of each of the magnets is orthogonal to the length axis of the flexible wire. The medical device is completely self-contained and does not require a bulky external field source able to maintain strong magnetic field gradients (100-10,000 T/m) along the wire, and at a radial distance (˜1 mm) to attract magnetic particles throughout the entire vein diameter at a range of physiologic velocities (1-10 cm/sec). This technology is a major step forward for the clinical relevance of CTC analysis to personalized medicine and introduces a powerful generalizable strategy for enrichment of other rare blood biomarkers.

Abstract: A medical device and method for detection, retrieval or elimination of disease-associated toxins and biomarkers is provided. A plurality of magnets is arranged within a flexible sheath forming a flexible wire. The magnets are magnetically attached to each other, end-to-end, and arranged with their magnetic polarities alternating in direction. The magnetization direction of each of the magnets is orthogonal to the length axis of the flexible wire. The medical device is completely self-contained and does not require a bulky external field source able to maintain strong magnetic field gradients (100-10,000 T/m) along the wire, and at a radial distance (˜1 mm) to attract magnetic particles throughout the entire vein diameter at a range of physiologic velocities (1-10 cm/sec). This technology is a major step forward for the clinical relevance of CTC analysis to personalized medicine and introduces a powerful generalizable strategy for enrichment of other rare blood biomarkers.