A Medical Device Daily

Varian Medical Systems (Salt Lake City), a maker of X-ray tubes and flat panel digital image detectors, said it has been awarded a patent for improved shielding in X-ray tubes. The company reports that this is the 100th X-ray tube patent from the U.S. Patent Office.

The new Patent No. 7661445, titled, "Shielded Cathode Assembly" applies to internal shielding in X-ray tubes. Where lead is normally used in the tube housing to protect from radiation leakage, the new patent involves moving the shielding, now made of tungsten, inside the X-ray tube, closer to the point of X-ray development. "By moving the shielding as close to the X-ray source as possible, this innovative technology improves the radiation shielding, reduces the tube weight and moves toward a 'greener' product by using less lead." said Dennis Runnoe, VP of Varian's X-Ray products R&D group.

Varian also has patents surrounding the development of the anode grounded CT tube. "Varian has been a pioneer in anode grounded tube technology which has resulted in faster CT-scanning, air cooled X-ray tubes for safer mammography and smaller size, lighter weight X-ray tubes," said Runnoe.

In other patent news, Acacia Research (New Port Beach, California) reported that a subsidiary has acquired patents for catheter insertion technology.

The patented technology generally relates to catheterization of patients using a guide wire and a flushing port. The technology can be used to facilitate insertion of catheters for intravenous treatments such as chemotherapy for cancer, drug therapy for pain mitigation or antibiotic therapy for infections.