Properties of radiopaque materials used in market-approved FDs
| Radiopaque Materials | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Alloy | Radiopacity (Density)a | Market-Approved FD Examples | Radiopaque Element Type |
| Platinum-tungsten | ∼19.75 g/cm3 | PED, PED Flex, PED Shield, Surpass Streamline, Surpass Evolve | 12 Platinum-tungsten wires incorporated into the overall braid2 |
| Tantalum | 16.65 g/cm3 | FRED, FRED Jr, FRED X | Interwoven tantalum strands between braided layers and 4 markers on flared ends of device2 |
| Platinum | 21.45 g/cm3 | Silk, Silk+, p64, Tubridge | Silk features 4 platinum wire strands with flared ends. Silk+ features 8 platinum wires and 4 platinum coils at device ends.2 The p64 features 2 platinum wires wrapped along the length of the device and 8 markers at the device end.36 Tubridge features 2 platinum strands2 |
| Nitinol outer, platinum inner DFT | ∼6 g/cm3 for nitinol; 21.45 g/cm3 for platinum | Silk Vista, Silk Vista Baby, p48MW (phenox), p48_HPC, DERIVO | 48 Braided DFT wires. DERIVO features 3 additional markers on the device end2 |
| Cobalt-nickel-chromium outer, platinum inner DFT | ∼8.5 g/cm3 for cobalt-nickel-chromium; 21.45 g/cm3 for platinum | Pipeline Vantage | 48 or 64 Braided DFT wires14 |
a Density is given as a rough proxy for radiopacity in lieu of the lack of corroborative data for these materials and geometries by a consistent approach. Future studies, outside the present scope, may focus on quantitative radiopacity comparison as a function of material, geometry, filtering materials, and imaging parameters. Such a study could be used to aid in the design of future devices.