The present disclosure relates to guidewire devices having shapeable tips and effective torquability. A guidewire device includes a core having a proximal section and a tapered distal section. A tube structure is coupled to the core such that the tapered distal section of the core extends into and distally beyond the tube structure. The portion of the core extending distally beyond the tube forms a shapeable tip. A polymer covering encompasses the tip. The tip is configured to reduce the tendency of resilient forces from the tube structure to disrupt a customized shape of the tip.

A guide wire includes a core shaft, a coil body that is a wire wound around the core shaft, and a resin layer covering at least an outer peripheral surface of the coil body. The coil body includes a spaced part in which a gap is formed between adjacent wires, and is arranged to form a void between the coil body and the core shaft. The resin layer includes a protruding portion protruding inside the void toward the core shaft through the gap between the adjacent wires in the spaced part. The protruding portion extends toward the core shaft in a direction away from an inner peripheral surface of the coil body.

The present disclosure describes delivery cables for delivering a medical device. In one embodiment, a delivery cable includes a flexible inner core, a proximal outer coil, and a distal outer coil. The proximal outer coil has a first rigidity. The distal outer coil surrounds at least a portion of a distal section of the flexible inner core and has a second rigidity less than the first rigidity thereby, thereby reducing bias placed on the medical device by the delivery cable.

A catheter comprises a hollow sheath, a guidewire extendable through the hollow sheath, where the guidewire comprises a controllably bendable tip portion, a hollow tubular intermediate portion connected to the tip portion, an electrical connection portion connected to the hollow tubular portion, at least a first wire extending through the hollow tubular portion and connected at a first end thereof to a first circumferential conductor and at a second end thereof to a surface of the tip end, and a power supply connector, therein the electrical connection portion is received in the power supply connector and a first terminal in the power supply connector contacts the first circumferential conductor.

A tubular body that includes a plurality of first wires distributed in an annular portion of the tubular body, and a plurality of deformed second wires alternately disposed between each of the plurality of first wires, the plurality of first wires and the plurality of deformed second wires being in an alternately twisted arrangement in a longitudinal direction of the tubular body, where each of the plurality of first wires has a substantially circular shape in a cross section view, and each of the plurality of deformed second wires has a non-circular shape in the cross section view, has an arcuate side portion that receive a part of a side surface of an adjacent wire of the plurality of first wires, and has an annular sector shape protruding in a radial direction in the cross section view of the tubular body.

Devices, systems, and methods are disclosed that help deliver catheters or other medical devices to locations within a patient's body. The device includes a transporter catheter having a proximal end and a distal end, at least a first balloon located at the distal end, substantially at a tip of the transporter catheter, and at least a second balloon located between the distal end and the proximal end of the transporter catheter. The first balloon is an orienting balloon and the second balloon is an anchor balloon. The transporter catheter may include a single lumen or more than one lumen. The transporter catheter may have a shaft including an inner layer and an outer layer, the inner layer may be made of a material more flexible than the material of the outer layer. The outer layer may also include a braided wire assembly, said braided wire assembly being formed by braiding a plurality of flat wires or circular wires. The braided wire assembly may wrap around the inner layer. The transporter catheter may have a shaft that may include a plurality of segments of varying degrees of hardness. The degree of hardness of the segment of the shaft of the transporter catheter located between the first balloon and the second balloon may be less than the degree of hardness of the segment of the shaft between the second balloon and the proximal end of the catheter.

A guide wire configured for use with existing catheter mapping and navigation systems. The guide wire is made of electrically conductive material and coated in an electrically insulating material. An uncoated region is provided near the guide wire's distal tip. This uncoated region forms a conductive path between the metallic components of the guide wire and the surrounding tissue. The uncoated region effectively becomes an electrode for use in prior art mapping and navigation systems. The mapping and navigation system determines the position of the uncoated region.

A guidewire comprising a magnetic element that would help to avoid accidental release of the guidewire. The magnetic element is located at a proximal one-fourth segment of the guidewire. The guidewire could be used in a variety of contexts, such as central venous catheterization, endovascular radiology procedures, or cardiac catheterization. Also disclosed are vascular instruments comprising a magnetic element or magnetically responsive element. Examples of such vascular instruments include finder needles, dilation cannulas, and various types of catheters. The vascular instrument could be used in combination with a magnetic guidewire to help to avoid accidental release of the guidewire.

The disclosure provides a flexible, narrow medical device (such as a micro-catheter or a guidewire) that is controllably moved and steered through lumens of a body. The medical device may include an electrically-actuatable bendable portion at a distal end, which may be provided by a polymer electrolyte layer, electrodes distributed about the polymer electrolyte layer, and electrical conduits coupled to the electrodes, such that the polymer electrolyte layer deforms asymmetrically in response to an electrical signal through one or more conduits. The disclosure further includes a controller for moving the device into and out of bodily lumens and for applying the electrical signal for steering the device. The device further includes methods of preparing the polymer electrolyte layer in tubular shape.

Polymer catheters and guidewires for use in intravascular surgery, and more particularly polymer catheters and guidewires micro-machined with a micro-cutting machine to provide sufficient flexibility to travel through a patient's vasculature while retaining sufficient torquability to transmit torque from a proximal end to the distal end of the catheter or guidewire, and methods of producing the same.