A Novel Discharge Electrode Structure to Increase the Times of Shockwaves Generation

Intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) is an effective method to treat vascular calcification. IVL employs the shockwave generated by the electrohydraulic effect to make calcification fractured without damaging blood vessels. The current commonly used discharge structure is the wire-metal ring structure. However, with the increase in the number of discharges, the burning loss will continue to aggravate, leading to structural failure and seriously limiting the equipment's life at about 80 times. To solve the above problems, this paper proposes parallel wires discharge electrode structure for IVL. The changes of shockwave intensity generated by the electrode are measured with 1.6kV, pulse width of 60μs at PRF 1Hz. Then the gypsum ring is used as the phantom and the fracture ability of the shockwave on phantom is evaluated. The results show that the intensity and fracture ability of the shockwave remain stable over 280 consecutive generations. The discharge electrode can reduce the operation time caused by equipment replacement and relieve the pain of patients