The Applicability of Palladium Alloys as Substitutes for Platinum Alloys in Medical Devices

Platinum alloys (especially Pt-Ir) exhibit two unique properties - exceptional corrosion resistance and extremely high radiopacity, and they can be readily fabricated into a variety of complex components. Because of these unique properties, they have become the default material in several specialized applications in medical devices including electrodes and conductor wires in cardiac rhythm management devices, electrode bands and electrode tips in electro-physiology devices, marker bands in a variety of catheters, and tip coils in guidewires. Like many commodities, the price of platinum has been very volatile in recent years, and this has driven interest in possible substitutes for Pt in these applications. Various palladium alloys are under consideration as potential lower-cost substitutes for platinum alloys. This paper will present some properties of Pd-Ir alloys versus Pt-Ir alloys, and it will review some of the issues associated with replacing Pt-alloys with a Palladium-alloy or other material.