Method and apparatus for irradiating a surface with pulsed light
OwnerLuis De Taboada, Jackson Streeterinventors
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Abstract
A method and apparatus irradiates a surface with at least one pulsed light beam emitted from an emission surface of an optical element. The at least one pulsed light beam comprises a plurality of pulses having a temporal pulsewidth in a range between about 0.1 millisecond and about 150 seconds. The at least one pulsed light beam has a beam cross-sectional area at the emission surface greater than about 2 cm2 and a time-averaged irradiance in a range between about 1 mW/cm2 and about 100 W/cm2.
Claims38
An apparatus for irradiating a portion of a patient's scalp or skull with light, the apparatus comprising:
- a source of light;
- and
- an output optical element in optical communication with the source, wherein the output optical element comprises an emission surface configured to emit a pulsed light beam comprising a plurality of pulses having a temporal pulsewidth in a range between 0.1 millisecond and 150 seconds, the pulsed light beam having a cross-sectional area greater than about 2 cm2 at the emission surface of the output optical element, having a time-averaged irradiance in a range of about 10 mW/cm2 to about 10 W/cm2 across the cross-sectional area.
A method of irradiating a surface with light, the method comprising:
- irradiating the surface with at least one pulsed light beam emitted from an emission surface of an optical element, the at least one pulsed light beam comprising a plurality of pulses having a temporal pulsewidth in a range between about 0.1 millisecond and about 150 seconds, the at least one pulsed light beam having a beam cross-sectional area at the emission surface greater than about 2 cm2 and a time-averaged irradiance in a range between about 1 mW/cm2 and about 100 W/cm2.
A method of treating a patient's brain, the method comprising:
- irradiating at least a portion of the scalp or skull of the patient with at least one pulsed light beam comprising a plurality of pulses transmitted through the patient's skull to irradiate at least a portion of the brain, the at least one pulsed light beam having a temporal profile comprising a time-averaged irradiance at the scalp averaged over one second in a range between about 100 mW/cm2 and about 10 W/cm2 and a peak irradiance at the scalp in a range between about 12.5 mW/cm2 and about 1000 W/cm2.
A method of treating a patient who has experienced a traumatic brain injury, the method comprising noninvasively irradiating at least a portion of the patient's scalp or skull with pulsed light penetrating the patient's skull to irradiate and stimulate brain cells of the patient, the pulsed light having a temporal profile comprising an average irradiance per pulse, a temporal pulse width, and a pulse duty cycle, the temporal profile selected to modulate membrane potentials in order to enhance, restore, or promote cell survival, cell function, or both of the irradiated brain cells following the traumatic brain injury.
A method of treating a patient experiencing a neurodegenerative disease or depression, the method comprising noninvasively irradiating at least a portion of the patient's scalp or skull with pulsed light penetrating the patient's skull to irradiate and stimulate brain cells of the patient, the pulsed light having a temporal profile comprising an average irradiance per pulse, a temporal pulse width, and a pulse duty cycle, the temporal profile selected to modulate membrane potentials in order to enhance, restore, or promote cell survival, cell function, or both of the irradiated brain cells.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.