Endo-cameral Closure Device for Structural Heart Defects and Blood Vessel Repair

This technology includes a device to close a hole in the wall of a large blood vessel or cardiac chamber from the inside out, delivered over a guidewire and through a catheter or sheath. First, the proximal portion deploys within the vessel or chamber and is advanced over a guidewire to oppose the wall and seal the hole. Second, the distal portion self-assembles outside the vessel or chamber upon withdrawal of the guidewire. Deployment of the distal portion anchors the device securely in place.

Transcatheter MRI-guided Implantable Cavopulmonary Bypass Endograft for the Treatment of Congenital Heart Disease

This technology includes a catheter-delivered endograft designed to treat congenital heart disease without surgery. The specific surgical procedure averted is cavopulmonary bypass graft. The key innovations are features to effect distal end-to-side anastomosis and proximal end-to-end anastomosis without surgery. The system operates under X-ray and MRI guidance.

Instant Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence/Structured Illumination Microscopy (instant TIRF/SIM)

This technology includes a method which enables high-speed, super-resolution microscopy at a very high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), for biological applications within ~200 nm (the evanescent wave decay length) of a coverslip surface. Instant TIRF/SIM may be implemented simply by modifying and adding to the excitation optics that are already present within a conventional instant SIM design. We enforce TIRF excitation by removing all wave vectors that propagate into the objective lens at sub-critical angles.

Generalized MRI Artifact Reduction Using Array Processing Method

The invention is a phased array combining method for reducing artifacts in Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging. The method uses a constrained optimization that optimizes signal-to-noise subject to the constraint of nulling ghost artifacts at known locations. The method is effective in reducing or canceling artifacts that arise in a wide variety of MR applications, including ghost artifacts from echo planar imaging and Gradient Recalled Echo with Echo Train (FGRE-ET) imaging used in cardiac or other rapid imaging applications.

Method and Apparatus to Improve an MRI Image

The invention is a method for improving image quality in MR imaging methods using the SENSE (SENSitivity Encoding) method, which is known to have degraded image quality due to numerical ill-conditioning (so called g-factor loss). The invention improves the numerical conditioning by means of an adaptive regularization (matrix conditioning), thereby improving image quality for a given scan time. This is accomplished by adaptively adjusting the regularization parameter for each pixel position to achieve a target ghost artifact suppression.

Variable Curve Catheter

The invention provides a deflectable tip guiding device, such as a catheter, that enables the operator to vary the radius of curvature of the tip of the catheter. This is a novel variation on the classic "fixed fulcrum" tip deflectors used in minimally invasive procedures in open surgical treatments. The described device permits a more comprehensive ability to navigate complex geometric pathways in patient's body and enables better access to target structures (e.g., to all endomyocardial walls from a transaortic approach).
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