Remote Control of Catheter Tip Deflection: A Special Opportunity for Interventional MRI

One of the challenges of endovascular interventional procedures is to direct the remote catheter tip into tiny blood vessel branches in the brain, or heart, for example. Conventional approaches to this problem have involved development of catheter materials, tip geometries and the “hands-on” exact skill of the interventional practitioner. While these procedures are generally performed under image guidance of X-ray fluoroscopy (with considerable radiation exposure), initiatives to use MRI for guidance of such endovascular interventions are being developed. Interventional MRI has many pros and cons when compared to traditional imaging approaches; however, it also affords a special opportunity for remote orienting of the catheter, exploiting the ambient strong magnetic field. The current study seeks to exploit this opportunity and develop a device for remotely controlling the orientation of the catheter tip