Who designed the molded straight catheters in 1960 by boiling water?

• A. Melvin Judkins
• B. Sven-Ivar Seldinger
• C. Charles Dotter
• D. Andreas Gruentzig

Answer: (A)

Shaping catheters with heat to create predefined curves that reliably engage the coronary arteries is a key early advance in selective coronary angiography. Melvin Judkins introduced these molded straight catheters in the early 1960s by briefly heating a straight catheter in boiling water and bending it to a fixed curve for the right and left coronary ostia. This approach gave practitioners standardized, reproducible shapes that could be used from a single arterial access, making diagnostic angiography more efficient and safer. The other names fit different contributions: Seldinger developed the vascular access technique, Dotter pioneered transluminal procedures, and Gruentzig later brought balloon angioplasty to practice.