Laser catheter with use of reflected light to determine material type in vascular system

An apparatus for determining a type of a material in a region within a vascular system of a patient and a distance to the material, the apparatus comprising:

• a laser catheter coupled to a light source, the laser catheter comprising:
• a distal end and a tip at the distal end;
• at least one source fiber disposed at the tip and configured to supply light from the light source to a contact region within a vascular system of a patient so as to illuminate the contact region within the vascular system of the patient;
• and
• at least one return fiber disposed at the tip and configured to receive light reflected from the contact region within the vascular system of the patient, wherein the reflected light is indicative of diffuse absorbance and transmittance characteristics of the contact region;
• and
• at least one controller comprising a processor executing:
• optical property determining logic configured to separate the reflected light into a plurality of channels, determine an intensity value for each plurality of channels and determine at least one property of the contact region within the vascular system from the reflected light from the contact region within the vascular system, wherein the optical property determining logic identifies a change in intensity value for each plurality of channels and creates a waveform for each plurality of channels, wherein each waveform is representative of the intensity value over time;
• material type determining logic configured to determine a type of a material in the contact region within the vascular system based on receiving the change in intensity value for each plurality of channels from the reflected light based upon the optical property determining logic, wherein the material type determining logic determines whether the contact region is blood or tissue;
• and
• distance determining logic configured to determine an indication of a distance to the material in the contact region within the vascular system based on determining the at least one property from the reflected light based upon the optical property determining logic.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:

• separate reflected light received from at least one return fiber disposed at the tip of a laser catheter and into a plurality of channels and determines an intensity value for each plurality of channels separate the reflected light into a plurality of channels, based on the at least one signal, wherein the reflected light is from a contact region within a vascular system of a patient after illumination of the contact region with light from a light source, wherein the reflected light is indicative of diffuse absorbance and transmittance characteristics of the contact region;
• determine an intensity value for each plurality of channels;
• determine a change in intensity value for each plurality of channels;
• create a waveform for each plurality of channels, wherein each waveform is representative of the intensity value over time;
• generate, based on the waveform, at least one signal indicative of at least one property of the contact region within the vascular system;
• determine the at least one property of the contact region within the vascular system, based on the waveform;
• and
• determine a type of a material in the contact region within the vascular system based on determining the at least one property of the contact region, wherein the executable instructions when executed by one or more of the processors cause the one or more processors to determine whether the contact region is blood or tissue.