Photoclubalpha

Here are some pictures of a coronary stent I took today at work. This is used like a scaffolding inside a blocked coronary artery to keep it open. In the old days all they could do to open a vessel was a balloon, basically compressing the plaque against the vessel wall, and stretching it wider. While this was better than nothing, the arteries are elastic and tend to recoil back to their original diameter after ballooning. This tiny metal contraption will keep that from happening. It is directed to the blockage via a .014 inch guide wire that acts as a rail to keep the balloon and stent from, oh say poking through the vessel wall and rupturing it.

These are not too artistic, but I hope everyone finds them interesting none the less. The first photo is the stent crimped upon the balloon for delivery. If you look closely at the clear plastic balloon, you will see the great attention to wrapping it on the catheter, to give it the smallest profile.
The second photo is the balloon expanded balloon inflated to approx 7 ATM or 7x atmospheric presure.
The third is just the stent on its own. Its expanded size is approx 4.5mm x 24mm. This would be for a large artery. All photos are with a700 and 30mm f2.8 SAM. C&C always welcome, John

Did I miss something? When did you get an a700 or 30mm SAM Macro? Nice shots, by the way...how much did that little baby cost?

Do you mean the stent or the Camera? The stent is about $1000.00 The a700 was a little more with the 16-105. I'm thinking about selling that 16-105 for a 2.8 zoom... We'll see. The SAM was a cheap $200. I hope to be doing some more OR shots for the hospital soon, as we are adding more procedures. I missed a craniotomy when I went to South Padre Island. Oh well.

Oh, the stent was cheaper than I thought! Where did you find an a700 kit, by the way?

Amazon.com I verified with Sony that the serial # was a legit US model. They said yes, and that it would be covered. Hopefully I won't have to us it. That is a bare metal stent. If it was a drug-eluting stent (covered with a chemotherapy drug to prevent scar tissue overgrowth) it would be about $2500. John

Pretty good macro shots of something only 4mm wide, btw there's no great hurry for the OR shots...take your time.
Greg

Fine shots John & very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Congratulations! I know you'll enjoy it (you were always admiring my LCD). So what motivated you to finally up and buy an a700?

Greg- I hope to have the OR shots up this weekend.. I took a bunch of photos, and I am trying to cull the herd to the best ones. That's my excuse anyway
Kevin- I pulled the trigger, because the price and the timing were perfect. I know that the replacement will be announced soon, but I figured why wait, and the new one will probably be more expensive... We'll see..... John

John I thought A700's were hard or almost impossible too find new now. Sony style here have been 'out of stock' for a long time now. Did you have much trouble finding one.
Greg

It wasn't hard to find really, I just put in Sony a700 in the search, and it came up. They have a couple new ones listed today... John

Very interesting John - I think I like the shots of the equipment before it gets err... messy

The metals links are amazing - I wonder how they manufacture something like that?

EDIT: P.S. I noticed that I have made it to Emperor! Whoa ! A long way to Vortex, but I guess I have a Galaxy to sort out first .

Birma wrote: EDIT: P.S. I noticed that I have made it to Emperor! Whoa ! A long way to Vortex, but I guess I have a Galaxy to sort out first .

Congratulations, Your Imperial Highness!

Your humble servants hope that your reign is an enlightened one.

Dusty

Birma wrote:EDIT: P.S. I noticed that I have made it to Emperor! Whoa ! A long way to Vortex, but I guess I have a Galaxy to sort out first .

No one knows what will happen next...

Darnit......Just when I thought I was pretty hot stuff for being a Grand Caliph....Congrats Emperor Birma Bokehus the First!