Importance

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Abstract

A conformable catheter comprising a catheter handle, an elongated catheter tube, and a distal tip portion of the catheter tube, capable of assuming a desired pre-programmed shape. A wire member is disposed within the core of the catheter's tip portion and is formed of a material, such as, for example, a shape-memory binary nickel-titanium alloy, that will assume a pre-programmed shape after pre-shaping, heat treatment, cooling and subsequent heating. To pre-program the shape of the wire member, prior to assembly of the catheter, the wire member is wound around a shaped, heat resistant fixture, heated until the temperature of the wire member exceeds the temperature at which the shape of the wire member on the fixture becomes programmed into the wire member, and cooled. Upon subsequent heating of the wire member above its activation temperature after inclusion of the wire member into the catheter tubing, such as by controllably connecting the wire member to an electrical power source, the wire member, and thus the catheter's tip portion, assumes the pre-programmed curved or bent shape from its normally straight generally linear disposition.

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First Claim