Clever catheter lets surgeons see inside arteries to trim plaque

The Pantheris catheter developed by Avinger takes the physician out of the radiation field.

[Image courtesy of Avinger]

A clever catheter design lets cardiologists see inside arteries and precisely remove plaque from diseased tissue. The Pantheris catheter is safer than conventional radiation-guided procedures because it takes the surgeon out of the radiation field, and along with on-board optics, it allows greater precision than previous methods.

“The device is the culmination of recent size reduction – it’s 2 mm in diameter − and resolution in fiberoptics, combined with signal processing capability and catheter technology, which is getting better at transmitting torque,” said Bart Beasley, the vice president of marketing with developer Avinger (Redwood City, Calif.). “The progression of all three technologies and the entrepreneurial spirit of the inventor Dr. John Simpson made the Pantheris possible.”

Beasley said that Pantheris for the first time lets surgeons see inside arteries they are working on. An OCT fiber in the catheter transmits laser light to the vessel wall, then back into the catheter, and back into the computer and processor, which creates the high-resolution image. Pantheris, which won FDA approval last year, has been used successfully in 1,500 patients with no vessel wall perforations, Beasley said.

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