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 extends into the tube structure. The tube structure includes a plurality of bypass cuts formed tangentially within the tube structure to increase the flexibility of the tube structure and to reduce the tendency of resilient forces from the tube structure to disrupt a shaped distal tip of the guidewire device.

A guide wire for guiding a dilator to be inserted into a living body includes: a flexible elongated shaft portion; a puncture portion at a distal end portion of the shaft portion to form a hole in biological tissue; and an elastically deformable cover portion covering the puncture portion. The cover portion includes a sparse pitch portion that has a wire member wound in a spiral shape and axially contractible, and a distal end cover located on a distal end side of the sparse pitch portion and covering at least a part of the puncture portion. The puncture portion includes a first contact portion. The distal end cover includes a second contact portion configured to contact the first contact portion from a proximal end side, so that relative axial movement of the first and second contact portions is restricted by the first contact portion contacting the second contact portion.

A guidewire made from a drawn-filled tube composite wire is described. The composite wire has a stainless steel outer sheath jacketing a nitinol core wire. The drawn-filled tube composite wire is ground at its distal end to expose the nitinol core, which has superelastic and kink resistant properties that are desirable for the distal end of a guidewire. The proximal end of the drawn-filled tube is not ground or if ground, the outer sheath of stainless steel is not removed to an extent sufficient to expose the nitinol core.

The present disclosure relates to interventional devices such as catheters and guidewire devices having micro-fabricated features for providing flexibility while maintaining good torquability. An interventional device includes an elongated member (500) having an arrangement of fenestrations which define a plurality of axially extending beams coupling a plurality of circumferentially extending rings. The fenestrations are arranged so that the resulting beams form a distributed, non-helical and non-linear pattern along the length of the elongated member. The pattern of fenestrations thereby minimizes or eliminates preferred bending axes.

A guide wire includes a core shaft formed of superelastic metal, where the core shaft has a tapered portion having a diameter decreasing from its proximal end toward its distal end, an intermediate portion that is cylindrical and is adjacent to the proximal end of the tapered portion, and a proximal portion adjacent to a proximal end of the intermediate portion and having a maximum diameter larger than a diameter of the intermediate portion; a coil body covering at least a part of the intermediate portion and the tapered portion of the core shaft, the coil body having an outer diameter of 0.36 mm or less; and a distal tip disposed at a distal end of the coil body and forming a distal end of the guide wire, the diameter of the intermediate portion being 0.22 to 0.24 mm.

Disclosed herein are aspiration guide catheters having a pre-shaped distal portion configured to deflect away from a longitudinal axis of the catheter, and associated systems and methods. In some embodiments, an aspiration guide catheter includes an inner liner defining a lumen and having a proximal region and a distal region. The catheter further includes a braid of wires over the inner liner, and a wire coiled around the braid over at least a portion of the distal region of the inner liner. At least a portion of the braid over the distal region of the inner liner is configured to deflect away from a longitudinal axis of the proximal region. The catheter can further include an outer sheath over the braid, the wire, and the inner liner.

A catheter that includes a tubular inner layer, a first reinforcing body that is wound around an outside in a radial direction of the inner layer, a second reinforcing body that is wound around the outside in the radial direction of the first reinforcing body, and an outer layer that covers the inner layer, the first reinforcing body, and the second reinforcing body, and the inner layer has a reduced diameter portion that is reduced in diameter from a proximal end side of the catheter toward a distal end side of the catheter on an inner peripheral surface of the inner layer, and a thickness of the outer layer between the first reinforcing body and the second reinforcing body is increased, at least partially from the proximal end side toward the distal end side, in the radial direction of the reduced diameter portion.

A medical guide wire with excellent visibility is provided. A medical guide wire including: a wire body (2) that is flexible and long; a covering layer (3) covering a surface of the wire body (2); and a wire material (4) helically arranged on the covering layer (3), wherein the covering layer (3) is formed of a transparent material same as a transparent material of the wire material (4), and the wire material (4) is arranged at a regular pitch along the longitudinal direction of the wire body (2).

Disclosed is a guidewire configured to provide high torsional stiffness without detrimentally increasing bending stiffness. Such a device provides a high ratio of torsional stiffness to bending stiffness. The guidewire device includes a core with a proximal section and a distal section. The distal section of the core is coupled to a microfabricated outer tube such that the distal section of the core passes into and is encompassed by the outer tube.

A method for measuring a distance in a body vessel and introducing an implant into the body vessel, the method comprising: providing a guide wire, wherein the guide wire comprises a proximal end and a distal end, wherein the distal end comprises a spiral which has at least two adjoining spiral sections as markings, wherein at least a surface of one spiral section comprises a first material and at least a surface of the second spiral section comprises a second material, and further wherein the first material is different than the second material; inserting the guide wire into the body vessel; measuring the distance in the body vessel using the markings on the guide wire; and delivering the implant over the guide wire to the body vessel.