Forward-looking intravascular orthogonal-solenoid coil for imaging and guidance in occlusive arterial disease.

Recent intravascular imaging coil configurations have focused on side-viewing catheters capable of imaging the vessel wall of a patent vessel. These designs suffer from the presence of signal nulls and the inability to image in front of a device when it is oriented along the main static field. This is of particular importance when a device is being navigated through an occlusive lesion. To address these limitations we propose a new intravascular coil design consisting of two independent orthogonal solenoids located at the catheter tip. The two coils are oriented in such a way that signal nulls are eliminated and imaging is possible in planes located directly in front of the catheter. Complete characterization of the spatial signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) distribution of the design is presented. The coil configuration was fabricated on a 6F guide catheter, and its use is demonstrated in phantoms and in vivo. (c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.