DEVELOPMENT OF LASER PROBE USING CONTACT CERAMIC TIP FOR CORONARY LASER ANGIOPLASTY

Abstract

In the laser angioplasty, our in vitro study exhibited that the advantages of contact irradiation are 1)to have small burned area around ablated area, and 2)to obtain smooth surface at ablated area. And the combination of YAG laser and contact ceramic tip was turned out to be suitable for contact irradiation laser angioplasty. For coronary artery application, it was required to develop a small head of laser probe that includes contact ceramic tip and more flexible fiber. The purpose of this study is to develop laser probe using contact ceramic tip for coronary laser angioplasty.
In order to develop new probe, following points were improved.
1)Probe is disposable. 2)Contact.ceramic tip is not exchangable. 3)Most flexible quartz fiber with 400um diameter is used. 4)Frosting is processed at irradiating end of contact ceramic tip for easy carbonization at the point.
The new probe had a head with 1.7mm in maximum diameter and 11mm long. This probe was evaluated in female rabbit's atherosclerosing aorta made by high cholesterol diet. Atheroma was well ablated with less power (YAG laser with 25-30W ) in frosting than non-processing. This probe could go through inside of PTCA catheter. So, coronary application will be expected.