Frequently Asked Questions
What are the benefits of local, site-specific perivascular injection?
There are distinct advantages to local delivery over systemic delivery.
Local delivery provides:
- Lower systemic toxicity and side effects
- Improved dosage control
- Direct administration to minimize loss of therapeutic agent prior to activation at intended location.
How does perivascular differ from intravascular drug delivery?
The differences between perivascular (outside the vessel) and intravascular (inside the vessel) drug delivery include:
- Perivascular delivery allows drug retention at the treatment site vs. being washed away in the bloodstream.
- Perivascular delivery allows direct treatment of deep tissue, solid organ, muscle, and vessel wall.
- Perivascular delivery enables single injection and diffusion to bathe several centimeters of tissue or vessel — circumferentially, longitudinally, and transmurally.
- Fatty tissue outside the vessel retains most drugs as a natural depot for extended treatment.
Why is the Micro-Infusion Catheter the best method for reaching the perivascular space?
The Micro-Infusion Catheter has the following competitive advantages over prior vascular infusion and injection catheters:
- Control: The Micro-Infusion Catheter needle precisely targets an injection.
- Efficiency: Compounds are delivered to the outside of the vessel without systemic washout.
- Safety: Unlike conventional infusion catheters with pressure jets or larger, unsheathed needles, the Micro-Infusion Catheter needle — with a width of only two human hairs — does not injure the vessel wall.
- Feedback: Perivascular delivery is immediately visualized with minute amounts of contrast medium, proving positively that the drug is localized at the target.
- Consistency: The Micro-Infusion Catheter provides the most repeatable dose control of any prior infusion-based catheter system.
What can be injected through the Micro-Infusion Catheter?
Mercator has undergone preclinical testing with:
- Drugs
- Proteins
- Genes
- Stem cells
- Polymer beads up to 15 µm in diameter
What are the Micro-Infusion Catheter’s specifications?
- The Micro-Infusion Catheter is compatible with a 6Fr introducer sheath and 0.014” guidewire
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the Micro-Infusion Catheter 510(k) marketing clearance for delivery to blood diameter vessels. Research is underway with a Micro-Infusion Catheter to treat 2mm to 8mm vessels.
- The Micro-Infusion Catheter is marked with radio-opaque labels for fluoroscopic visualization.
- Injection takes place through a130 µm diameter needle
- Preclinical studies have shown the Micro-Infusion Catheter can be successfully tracked into distal coronary, peripheral, and hepatic circulation.
Additional information regarding Micro-Infusion Catheter injection:
- Typical delivery rate: 1 to 5 ml/min
- Typical infusion volume: less than 1 ml for several centimeters of treatment length
- The Micro-Infusion Catheter is FDA-cleared for the infusion of diagnostic and therapeutic agents that are indicated for delivery into the vessel wall or perivascular area, and for infusion of diagnostic and therapeutic agents intraluminally. Delivery of any agent not falling into these categories should be considered for investigational use only.
How do I get more information?
Email info@mercatormed.com.
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