Appeal No. 2006-2037 Page 5
Application No. 10/414,938
e.g., the patient’s vascular system. Ragheb, column 1, lines 15-19. Ragheb
discloses, “[h]owever, when such a device is introduced into and manipulated
through the vascular system, the blood vessel walls can be disturbed or injured.”
Ragheb, column 1, lines 22-24. Ragheb discloses that the problems associated
with the introduction and manipulation of a medical device in a patient can be
solved by providing the controlled release of an agent, drug or bioactive material
into the location in the body where the device is positioned. Ragheb, column 3,
lines 6-11. In this regard, Ragheb
discovered that the degradation of the agent, a drug or a bioactive
material that is applied to such a device can be avoided by positing
a coating layer on one surface of the device structure. The agent,
drug or bioactive material is posited over at least a portion of the
coating layer, wherein the coating layer provides for a controlled
release of the bioactive material posited thereon.
Ragheb, column 3, lines 11-18.
For clarity, we reproduce Ragheb’s figure 1, which is a cross-sectional
view of one of Ragheb’s preferred embodiments2:
Accordingly, Ragheb discloses a device 10, which comprises a structure 12 that
is shaped and sized for introduction into a patient. Ragheb, column 6,
2 Ragheb, column 6, lines 3-4, “Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a first preferred embodiment of
the present invention.”
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