A less traumatic catheter for coronary arteriography.

A deformable soft-tipped angiographic catheter has been designed and developed to reduce vascular trauma during coronary arteriography. In order to test the ability of the catheter tip glide over vascular endothelium, the coefficient of resistance was tested using fresh human aortic tissue. The mean frictional coefficients of resistance (FRc) for the soft-tipped catheter, as compared with two commonly used catheters (N = 10/group), were .78 +/- .08 units for the soft-tipped catheter and 1.10 +/- .10 (p less than .006) and .98 +/- .10 (p less than .034) for the conventional catheters. This demonstrates a significant 23% reduction in FRc with the soft-tipped catheter. The ease of penetration into a wax media was also measured using the soft-tipped catheter and compared with the same two conventional catheters. The indentation depths for the soft-tipped catheter and the two other catheter groups (N = 7/group) were 140 +/- 18 micron, 246 +/- 15 micron and 318 +/- 20 micron, respectively. This represents a 56% decrease in indentation depth with the soft-tipped catheter. Histologic studies in canines have demonstrated considerably less endothelial damage and subsequent intimal proliferation in the aorta and coronary ostia with the soft-tipped catheters compared with control catheters. It is concluded that a soft-tipped angiographic catheter is less traumatic to vascular tissue and may offer a safer approach to intravascular studies.