An apparatus for coating tubular members, such as stents comprises a liquid reservoir and a stent support member for supporting, in use, a tubular member. Support member dipping means places the support member in the liquid reservoir in use and draws the support member therefrom. Pressure differential generating means generates a pressure differential. The stent support member is arranged to provide a central passageway through a stent placed thereon, the central passageway having a plurality of perforations formed therein, and the pressure differential generating means is arranged to generate, in use, a pressure differential between the passageway and the tubular member.
This is a divisional of application Ser. No. 09/357,987 filed Jul. 21, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,214,115, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
There is provided a fluorescent material coating apparatus for a fluorescent lamp. The fluorescent material coating apparatus includes a cassette on which a plurality of glass tubes are detachably mounted, a delivery member having a delivery chamber communicating with first ends of the glass tubes, a negative pressure generating unit for allowing fluorescent solution to be drawn into the glass tubes by generating a negative pressure in the glass tubes communicating with the delivery chamber by lowering the pressure of the delivery chamber, a dry air supplying unit for supplying dry air to the delivery chamber to dry the fluorescent solution applied on inner surfaces of the glass tubes, a solution tank containing the fluorescent solution and disposed below the glass tubes mounted on the cassette, and a moving unit for allowing lower end portions of the glass tubes mounted in the delivery chamber to be dipped into the fluorescent solution contained in the solution tank.
An embolic protection filter and method of making the same. An embolic protection filter may include a filter membrane or material having a plurality of holes. In some embodiments, the filter membrane may be manufactured by spray coating a filter material onto a forming member or spray mold.
An expandable medical device has a plurality of elongated struts joined together to form a substantially cylindrical device which is expandable from a cylinder having a first diameter to a cylinder having a second diameter. At least one of the plurality of struts includes at least one opening extending at least partially through a thickness of the strut. A beneficial agent is loaded into the opening within the strut in layers to achieve desired temporal release kinetics of the agent. Alternatively, the beneficial agent is loaded in a shape which is configured to achieve the desired agent delivery profile. A wide variety of delivery profiles can be achieved including zero order, pulsatile, increasing, decrease, sinusoidal, and other delivery profiles.
The present invention relates to implantable medical devices for delivery of therapeutic agents, such as drugs, to a patient. More particularly, the invention relates to a device having therapeutic agents protected by a protective layer that prevents or retards processes that deactivate or degrade the active agents.
The present invention relates to implantable medical devices for the localized delivery of therapeutic agents, such as drugs, to a patient. More particularly, the invention relates to a device having a gradient of water soluble therapeutic agents within a therapeutic agent layer and a mixing layer that allows for controlled release of the therapeutic agents.
