Devices and methods for the delivery and injection of therapeutic and diagnostic agents to a target site within a body

The present invention includes systems, devices and methods for delivering and injecting a solution or agent into a target site within the body for the purpose of treating or diagnosing the target site. The target site may be bodily tissue (such as an organ, vessel or bodily lumen), bodily substances (such as a tumor, plaque and thrombus) or synthetic material attached to bodily tissue (such as an artificial graft). The systems and devices of the present invention include injection systems and components for accurately and precisely delivering, injecting and perfusing a therapeutic or diagnostic agent, preferably in a fluid form, directly into the target site without the need to penetrate the tissue with anything other than the agent itself. More specifically, none of the embodiments employ a needle or other penetrating device for creating a space within which the agent is injected. The injection systems include embodiments for use in intraoperative and interventional clinical settings, and generally comprise, at least in part, a propulsion apparatus, a reservoir, often called a syringe or ampule, for receiving and holding the solution or agent, and a dispersion means for transporting the solution or agent from the reservoir to the target site and for perfusing or dispersing it within the target site. The surgical and endovascular methods of the present invention include methods for injecting an agent into a target site within the body for the purpose of treating and/or diagnosing a target site or tissue adjacent a target site. Various therapeutic applications in which the invention may be employed include but are not limited to the treatment of cardiac, cardiovascular, peripheral vascular, and neurovascular diseases, AV access graft stenosis and thrombus formation, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. More specific examples of the types of applications that can be accomplished by the present invention include, for example, the administration of angiogenic solutions to an ischemic area of myocardium, the delivery of a thrombolytic drug to a thrombus within a chamber of the heart or to the peripheral or neuro vasculature, administration of a solution to a portion of the atria contributing to atrial fibrillation, or the delivery of an anti-angiogenic solution to a solid tumor or through the vasculature supplying blood to a malignancy.