Systems and Methods for Lesion Formation and Assessment

A system for visualizing ablated tissue comprising:

• a catheter comprising a catheter body;
• a distal tip positioned at a distal end of the catheter body, the distal tip having one or more ports for exchange of light energy between the distal tip and tissue;
• a lumen extending through the catheter body and the distal tip and having one more openings corresponding to the one or more ports on the distal tip;
• and one or more optical fibers configured to extend through the lumen and the one or more openings to an outer surface of the distal tip through one or more ports in the distal tip such that the one or more optical fibers direct the light energy to and from the tissue through the one or more ports;
• a light source;
• a light measuring instrument;
• and
• one or more optical fibers in communication with the light source and the light measuring instrument and extending through the catheter body into the distal tip, wherein the one or more optical fibers are configured to pass light energy from the light source to the light directing member for illuminating tissue outside the distal tip and the one or more optical fibers are configured to relay light energy reflected from the tissue to the light measuring instrument.

A method for visualizing ablated tissue comprising:

• advancing a catheter to a cardiac tissue in need of ablation, the catheter comprising a catheter body;
• a distal tip positioned at a distal end of the catheter body, the distal tip having one or more ports for exchange of light energy between the distal tip and tissue;
• a lumen extending through the catheter body and the distal tip and having one more openings corresponding to the one or more ports on the distal tip;
• and one or more optical fibers configured to extend through the lumen and the one or more openings to an outer surface of the distal tip through one or more ports in the distal tip such that the one or more optical fibers direct the light energy to and from the tissue through the one or more ports;
• illuminated the tissue through the one or more ports in the distal tip of the catheter to excite nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide hydrogen (NADH) in an area of the tissue including ablated cardiac tissue and non-ablated tissue;
• collecting light reflected from the tissue through the one or more openings and directing the collected light to a light measuring instrument;
• imaging the area of the tissue to detect NADH fluorescence of the area of the cardiac tissue;
• and
• producing a display of the imaged, illuminated tissue, the display illustrating the ablated cardiac tissue as having less fluorescence than non-ablated tissue.