Physicians continue to wait patiently for the day they can perform interventional cardiovascular and neurological procedures using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for guidance instead of x-ray. However, current guidewires and catheters don't work because they contain metal components that can distort MR imaging or potentially heat up inside the patient. To the rescue: MaRVis Technologies, which is developing guidewires and catheters that lack a metal core. The company's devices are built in a multi-composite manner--from core rods composed of fiberglass filaments enclosed with epoxy resin and doped with small metal particles--for MRI compatibility and visualization and to maintain the desirable material characteristics of current guidewires and catheters.

Hemoteq's hemocompatible coating for medical devices could help address one of the last remaining concerns about drug-eluting stents: the risk of subacute and late thrombosis. But for a small company to compete in drug-eluting stents isn't easy.