Importance

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Abstract

A catheter comprising a flexible tube having a proximal portion and a distal end portion. The proximal portion comprises a first or working lumen and a second lumen for a guidewire. The distal end portion consists of a small-diameter flexible tube having a single lumen. The catheter has a tapered transition portion interconnecting the proximal and distal portions, in which the first and second lumens have openings communicating internally of the catheter to the single lumen in the distal end portion. Coupled to a proximal end of the catheter are means for inserting an ultrasound or optical fiber into the first lumen for transmitting energy from an energy source through the catheter to an emission end near the distal end of the catheter and means for inserting the guidewire through the second lumen. The means for inserting are adapted to permit extension and retraction of the fiber and the guidewire in their respective lumens. The distal end portion containing the single lumen is sized to a diameter suitable for introduction into small cranial vessels, with an outer diameter less than that of the proximal portion containing the first and second lumens. This can be accomplished by sizing the distal end portion with an inner diameter of the single lumen just large enough to receive one of the guidewire and the fiber but not both.

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First Claim