Laser catheter with use of determined material type in vascular system in ablation of material

A method for ablating material in a region within a vascular system of a patient, the method comprising:

• determining, based on at least one property of a region within a vascular system of a patient after illuminating the region and transmitting light reflected from material in the region to a first optical receiver by at least one of a first plurality of optical fibers, at least one of a type of the material in the region and an indication of a distance to the material in the region based on the light reflected from the material in the region, wherein the light reflected from the material is indicative of diffuse absorbance and transmittance characteristics of the region;
• transmitting, in at least one of the first plurality of optical fibers in a laser catheter having a proximal end, a distal end and a length between the proximal end and the distal end, in response to determining the diffuse absorbance and transmittance characteristics of the region within the vascular system of the patient by separating the light reflected from the region into a plurality of channels;
• determining an intensity value for each plurality of channels and a change in intensity value for each plurality of channels and creating a waveform for each plurality of channels, wherein the waveform is representative of the intensity value over time;
• determining that the type of the material is a type of material to be ablated determine whether the material is blood circulating in the vascular system or tissue of the vascular system based upon each of the waveforms representative of the intensity value over time;
• transmitting, by the first emitter radially from the length of the laser catheter, at least some of the light transmitted from the light source in the at least one optical fiber of the first plurality of optical fibers so that the at least some of the light transmitted radially impinges upon and ablates the material in the region within the vascular system through an opening in the length proximate the distal end;
• and
• producing an alert based upon the diffuse absorbance and transmittance characteristics, wherein the alert is indicative of the type of the material in or the distance to the material in the region within the vascular system of the patient.

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

• execute optical property determining logic configured to determine, based on at least one property of a region within a vascular system of a patient after illuminating the region and transmitting light reflected from material in the region to a first optical receiver by at least one of a first plurality of optical fibers, wherein the optical property determining logic separates the light reflected from the material into a plurality of channels and determines an intensity value for each plurality of channels, wherein the optical property determining logic determines a change in intensity value for each plurality of channels creates a waveform for each plurality of channels, wherein the waveform is representative of the intensity value over time,
• execute material type determining logic configured to determine a type of the material in the region and determine whether the material is blood circulating in the vascular system or tissue of the vascular system based on receiving the change in intensity value for each plurality of channels from the optical property determining logic;
• transmit, by at least one of the first plurality of optical fibers in a laser catheter having a proximal end, a distal end and a length between the proximal end and the distal end, in response to determining that the type of the material is a type of material to be ablated, light from a light source, at least some of the light transmitted from the light source in the at least one of the first plurality of optical fibers being received at a first emitter disposed along the length proximate the distal end so that the first emitter radially transmits, from the length of the laser catheter, the at least some of the light transmitted from the light source in the at least one optical fiber of the first plurality of optical fibers so that the at least some of the light transmitted radially impinges upon and ablates the material in the region within the vascular system through an opening in the length proximate the distal end;
• and
• produce an alert based upon the diffuse absorbance and transmittance characteristics, wherein the alert is indicative of the type of the material in or the distance to the material in the region within the vascular system of the patient.