Smart Guidewires for Smooth Navigation in Neurovascular Intervention

Smart nitinol guidewires have been proposed to improve trackability, facilitating the advancement of catheters through complex vascular anatomies during neurovascular interventions. A smart 0.015 in. diameter nitinol guidewire was actualized through Joule heating of one-way and two-way shape memory alloys (SMA). The device functionalities in terms of bending performance were analyzed: (1) trackability of a 4 Fr catheter as determined in an anatomically correct in vitro environment; (2) time and spatial response of the smart guidewire as a function of material temperature and applied current; and (3) thrombogenic effects as a function of temperature and applied voltage. The results suggest that smart guidewires have substantially improved trackability (i.e., deflection of 15 deg) to overcome the "ledge effect" with the absence of thrombogenicity via a smart guidewire-catheter combined transcatheter based procedure which keeps the catheter surface temperature at 30-33 degrees C.