When AV fistulas or grafts flow falls below a critical threshold, percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) is the front-line treatment for repairing an access. Elective rather than emergent, and less invasive than surgery, angioplasty conserves the current access site and preserves future sites. During angioplasty, Transonic’s technology — the ReoCath® Flow Catheter and HVT100 Endovascular Flowmeter — provide on-the-spot, intra-access feedback about the functionality within the entire vascular access circuit.
These measurements tell the interventionalist at the outset if angioplasty is actually necessary or whether flow is sufficient to delay the intervention to a future date. Secondly, intra-access flow measurements provide objective functional data to guide the interventionalist in achieving a target flow goal. Finally, at the end of the intervention, measuring flow can determine whether there has been elastic recoil of the vessel.
Also, flows can be documented for the patient record and compared with vascular access flows obtained during subsequent hemodialysis.