Catheter
AssigneePa Knowledge Limited
InventorsRichard Harley Grenville OWEN, Stephen Blatcher, Stewart Maddison Fox, Martin Lawrence Hughes
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A catheter for insertion into a blood vessel, the catheter having a sampling part arranged to capture a blood sample at a plurality of locations along a length of the blood vessel and an apparatus arranged to analyse blood taken from a plurality of locations along the length of the blood vessel and to provide a profile of concentration levels along the length of the blood vessel.
Claims16
A method for generating a data profile for one or more biomarkers at a site of interest in a blood vessel, comprising the steps of:
- (a) analyzing a plurality of blood samples obtained from respective locations along a length of the blood vessel;
- (b) measuring the concentration of the one or more biomarkers in each of the samples, and (c) generating a data profile of the concentration levels for the one or more biomarkers along the length of said blood vessel.
A method of profiling a length of a blood vessel comprising:
- (a) obtaining a plurality of blood samples from a plurality of respective locations along the length of the blood vessel;
- and, (b) analyzing the plurality of blood samples to develop a profile of the concentration levels of one or more biomarkers along the length of the blood vessel.
A method for identifying a physiological or pathological state of a region of a blood vessel comprising applying at least one test to determine the level of at least one biological marker to a plurality of discrete blood samples, wherein the blood samples to be tested have been collected from along a length of the blood vessel.
A method for predicting a coronary condition caused by a vulnerable plaque, comprising:
- obtaining a plurality of blood samples along a length of a blood vessel;
- analyzing said plurality of blood samples for the concentration level of one or more biomarkers;
- generating a profile for the said biomarkers;
- and
- providing an output map which displays concentration gradient of at least one biochemical marker along the length of the blood vessel.
A collection of discrete blood samples that have been extracted from along a length of a blood vessel, the length of the blood vessel being considered to potentially include a region of vulnerable plaque, wherein the discrete blood samples have been collected at a plurality of locations along the length of the blood vessel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.