ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,465,721, issued on Nov. 11, was assigned to St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc. (St. Paul, Minn.).

"Controllable expandable catheter" was invented by Gregory K. Olson (Elk River, Minn.), Rishi Manda (Stillwater, Minn.), Travis Dahlen (Forest Lake, Minn.), Troy T. Tegg (Elk River, Minn.), Brian M. Monahan (Elk River, Minn.) and Russell D. Terwey (St. Michael, Minn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Elongate medical devices with an expandable structure including elongated splines and a distal hub. An elongate medical device includes a handle including a control mechanism, a catheter shaft, an expandable structure including elongated spl...