Importance

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Abstract

A guide which can be introduced into a narrow passage in a human or other animal body, such as into a narrow blood vessel in a human heart, has a flexible tube which is made of a plurality of helically wound and closely adjacent wires of a metallic or plastic material. An intermediate portion of the tube adjacent its distal end is permanently curved or is ductile so that its curvature can be changed in order to enable a person in charge to select the orientation of the distal end of the tube for convenient advancement from a wider passage into a narrower passage which is inclined with reference to the wider passage. The inserted tube serves as a guide for introduction of a dilatation catheter, another catheter, a cardiac pacemaker electrode or any other slender elongated flexible medical device which is to be temporarily or permanently introduced into the heart or into another organ or another part of an animal body. The making of the tube from several helically wound wires ensures that the distal end is compelled to share angular movements of the proximal end while the flexibility of the tube remains very pronounced.

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First Claim