Importance

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Abstract

A method and apparatus for treating a lesion (34) of a blood vessel (33) with radiation from a radioactive source (35). A catheter (36) having at least one lumen (56) is placed into the blood vessel (33) with a distal portion (36A) near the lesion (34) and a proximal portion (49) outside of the blood vessel (33). A radiation tube (4) is at least partially placed into the catheter (36) through a lumen (56) such that a juncture (80) is formed between the proximal portion (49) of the catheter (36) and the radiation tube (4). A proximal end of the radiation tube (4) is connected to a drive device (9) for driving the radioactive source (35) through the radiation tube (4) and the catheter (36) to near the lesion (34). An axial translation device (31) is placed at the juncture (80). The axial translation device (31) has a first element (81) fixedly connected in an axial direction (A) to catheter (36) near the proximal portion (49) thereof, a second element (84) fixedly connected in the axial direction (A) to the radiation tube (4) near the juncture (80), and a third element (86) movably connected to the first element (81) and the second element (84). By moving at least one of the elements (81, 84 and 86), a relative axial translation (88) of the catheter (36) and radiation tube (4) is caused for manually positioning the radioactive source (35) near the lesion (34).

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First Claim