Minnow Medical Aims to Commercialize Improved Device for Treating Peripheral Artery Disease

peripheral artery disease, or PAD, partial blockages of blood vessels that can cause intense leg pain and circulatory problems. The standard treatment in many cases is amputation, according to Steinke.

A number of other biomedical companies have been modifying stents developed for coronary care for use in the legs, but Steinke regards the knee in particular as a “no stent zone.” He views atherectomies as even more problematic; the surgical procedure uses a laser catheter or a rotating shaver to blast or shave away the waxy buildup inside arterial walls, and Steinke worries that debris generated from an atherectomy just causes more downstream complications.

Balloon Catheter
Balloon Catheter

Steinke says his design represents an improvement in existing technology by adding electrodes to the outside of the balloon catheter, which is threaded inside a blood vessel to the site where an artery is constricted. The electrodes use radiofrequency energy to heat the targeted plaque to temperatures that range from 122 degrees to 176 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s not enough to make your blood boil, but Minnow says the energy “denatures” the plaque, breaking molecular bonds so that much of the hardened fatty buildup seems to dissolve with very little effort.  As a result, Steinke says it takes about one-third less atmospheric pressure to inflate the balloon (which is basically designed to squish the plaque against the inside of the artery wall) so the angioplasty procedure works with far better effect. “The artery takes the shape of the balloon angioplasty catheter and remains that way for several weeks,” Steinke says. So far, Minnow has secured one patent covering its technology and has 11 patent applications pending.

Steinke says Minnow’s device is intended eventually for heart patients with atherosclerotic disease, a multibillion-dollar market. But first Minnow has targeted non-coronary patients with peripheral artery disease, a worldwide market the company estimates at about 27 million people—with 10 to 12 million in the United States. Minnow’s device so far has been used to successfully

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.