Gladius Ex chronic total occlusion guidewire

The Gladius guidewire, manufactured by Asahi Intecc (Nagoya, Japan) is designed for peripheral vascular interventions.

It is a polymer guidewire that is used in cases of severely-calcified chronic total occlusion when the vessel architecture is unknown and the guidewire needs to be advanced to bridge the length of the occlusion. The Gladius EX guidewire is exactly the same, but it will have the CE mark for the indication for percutaneous coronary intervention.

Using polymer guidewires for more than 15 minutes in microcatheters designed for use with 0.014’’ guidewires leads to excessive friction that can impede the movement of the guidewire within the catheter and the coronary lesion. The Gladius EX has superior glide to the classic polymeric guidewires within the microcatheter lumen. It allows the tip to be bent into a 1-mm knuckle to pass through the subintimal space if necessary.

The tip weight is 3 g and it is flexible enough to aim it towards the target with a precise torque thanks to its ACT ONE technology – a distal wire surrounding the core all the way to the tip. There is also an exterior 0.014’’ coil all the way to the rounded tip, with a hydrophilic polymer coating. It is very useful in the hybrid strategy for antegrade and retrograde access and dissection re-entry with the Stingray device (Boston Scientific).

Keywords: Chronic Total Occlusion, coronary wire.