ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,605,141, issued on April 21, was assigned to PHILIPS IMAGE GUIDED THERAPY Corp. (San Diego).
"Smooth transition catheters" was invented by Jeremy Stigall (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Maritess Minas (San Diego).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention generally relates to a rapid exchange configuration that reduces the profile of a catheter riding on a guidewire and minimizes guidewire resistance. According to certain embodiments, a body of the catheter includes a distal portion and a proximal portion. The distal portion defines a guidewire lumen and includes a guidewire exit port being open in an proximal direction and leading to t...