Filter Device for Particles Released During Angioplasty

A small basket-like filtering device is designed to capture particles in the blood that may be released during angioplasty. The device allows blood to flow through it while capturing the particles.

The device is for use in patients who have had prior heart bypass surgery and whose bypass grafts have subsequently narrowed. Over time, arterial pressures degrade the vein grafts so they fill up and are clogged with plaque. A catheter is used to thread the basket filter through an artery and position it in the vein graft just beyond the blockage. The basket filter collapses within the catheter for positioning and resumes its shape when placed in the vein graft. The cardiologist then opens the narrowing in the artery with balloon angioplasty and places a stent in the narrowing to keep it open. The basket and contents are collapsed into a retrieval catheter. The plaque debris from the basket is later analyzed by a pathologist.

The effectiveness of the filter will be tested in a research study against a currently used balloon device by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (PA, USA). In this device, blood flow is stopped. An earlier study found that 8% of patients undergoing angioplasty with balloon protection had a cardiac event (death, heart attack, stent closure), while those without balloon protection had an event rate of 15%. The study of 800 patients is sponsored by MedNova (Galway, Ireland), the manufacturer of the basket device, called the CardioShield.




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Univ. of Pittsburgh