The alloy could make medical devices inside the body more visible under X-ray. Medical devices, such as stents and valves, are placed in the body through minimally invasive surgical procedures. These procedures are usually carried out with the help of medical imaging such as X-ray fluoroscopy so that a surgeon has clear visibility of where the device is placed. A fundamental problem with current materials used for making these devices is that they do not show up very well under X-ray. The problem becomes even more acute when the size of the medical device becomes smaller. Using X-ray visible markers is a less-than-optimal solution.
“An ideal solution is a device that is fully visible under the X-ray,” said D. Syed Tofail, lead scientist of the
Limerick research team. “But the alloy would have to be developed based on the currently approved alloys for medical devices. Up to now many companies have used gold or platinum to modify existing alloys, which improve x-ray visibility but are very expensive. We have identified a number of alloying elements that will make these devices as visible as those where platinum has been added to enhance the visibility, but at a significantly reduced cost.”
The research was conducted through an Innovation Partnership between the University of Limerick and the international medical devices company
COOK Medical, which was supported through the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership Programme.
The global market for minimally invasive surgical devices is estimated to reach the level of €17 to €26 billion in 2015/2016.