Micro active guide wire catheter system-Characteristic evaluation, electrical model and operability evaluation of micro active catheter

We have proposed a new prototype model of micro catheter with active guide wire that has two bending degrees of freedom using ICPF (ionic conducting polymer film) actuator on its front end as the servo actuator. In this paper, the bending characteristics of the micro active catheter (MAC) have been measured by application of electricity in physiological saline solution. By using simulators (whose conditions are similar to those of a body cavity), we also carried out simulation experiments "in vitro" and the contrast experiments of operability between the proposed catheter and conventional guide wire catheter. The experimental results indicate that the proposed MAC is applicable to intracavity operations.