Design Development and Modeling of the Laser-Cut Reinforced Shaft for Radiopaque Media Delivery to Coronary Artery Using Finite Element Method: Laser cut catheter reinforced shaft

Diagnostic Angiographic Catheters are still the standard of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). A braided reinforced shaft is used as the backbone, concerning flexibility and pushability performance. A braided reinforced shaft's unbeatable advantage over a non-braided catheter shaft is the substantial mechanical property and more sustainable vascular support. The recent development of modern laser cut metallic reinforced catheter shaft has focused on reducing wall thickness and variable flexibility from proximal to the distal end. However, there will always be a trade-off between improvement in deliverability, flexibility, radial strength, and burst pressure endurance. The effectiveness of the angiography procedure depends on the metallic reinforced shaft of the angiographic catheter, which is a sandwich layer between the inner lumen and outer polymeric jacket. The catheter reinforced shaft's design mainly influences pushability, flexibility, and burst pressure endurance. This study designed a diagnostic angiographic catheter's novel laser-cut metal-reinforced shaft. The laser-cut patterned reinforced shaft is designed to evaluate the variable flexibility from proximal to the distal end, push ability, and burst pressure endurance. The simulation results show that I-shaped slotted pattern has better flexibility, pushability, and burst pressure endurance until 700psi. Laser-cut catheter reinforced shaft's validated FE model can be used confidently to optimize future laser-cut metal-reinforced shaft designs, thus reducing the number of testing and product development times.