Tiny Balloon Makes Cardiac Catheter Use Safer
Pulled along the blood stream by a small balloon acting as a "sail," a newly developed catheter moves through veins to the right ventricle, and then into the pulmonary artery to record cardiac pressures.
One of its advantages is that the catheter can find its own way, following blood flow, to proper position. Fluoroscopy is not required.
More important, the little catheter slips into the right side of the heart of a seriously ill patient without causing extrasystoles. The balloon on the catheter's tip prevents stimulation of the endocardium.
The catheter was described at the recent American College of Cardiology meeting in New Orleans by one of its developers, H. J. C. Swan, MD, professor of medicine, University of California, and director of cardiology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.
First developed for use in a myocardial infarction research unit, investigators found the
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