Catheters & stents

Catheters, flexible tunes which can be introduced into the arteries, are widely used in modern, minimally invasive treatments for heart disease. Many catheters contain platinum marker bands and guide wires, which are used to help the surgeon guide the device to the treatment site. The radio-opacity of platinum, which makes it visible in x-ray images, enables doctors to monitor the position of the catheter during treatment.

Platinum marker bands are used in catheters applied to position cardiovascular stents. Stents are miniature wire meshes inserted into blood vessels to reduce blockages and allow blood to flow freely to the heart. Cardiac stents are generally made from other materials, such as stainless steel or cobalt-chromium alloys. Today, some manufacturers are also producing stents made from platinum-chromium alloys.

Furthermore, in a similar interventional procedure called coil embolization, platinum coils are inserted into arteries with aneurysms (potentially fatal bulges), where they prevent blood from flowing into the aneurysm and further.