Catheter, sheath or dilator for heart valve decalcification treatment and method of use thereof
AssigneeNorth Star Medical Inc.
InventorOlivier BATAILLE
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A deflectable sheath or dilator or catheter used for cardiac procedures; it has a shaft with one or more lumens; an optical fiber for use in channeling light used for visualization of calcification, heart tissue architecture or the progress of the cardiac procedure; the sheath or dilator or catheter includes an additional optical fiber for use as part of an ultrafast laser for calcium removal on or in heart valve tissue or for performing surgical intervention of the heart, or where the optical fiber is configurable for propagating a photon beam as part of an ultrafast laser for removing calcium on or in heart valve tissue or for performing surgical intervention of the heart.
Claims20
A deflectable sheath or dilator or catheter used for cardiac procedures comprising:
- a shaft with a proximal end and a distal end comprising one or more lumens running along a length of said shaft;
- an optical fiber located in one of said one or more lumens for use in channeling light used for visualization of calcification, heart tissue architecture or the progress of the cardiac procedure;
- wherein:
- said sheath or dilator or catheter further comprises an additional optical fiber for use as part of an ultrafast laser for calcium removal on or in heart valve tissue or for performing surgical intervention of the heart, said additional optical fiber running along a length of another of said one or more lumens;
- or
- said optical fiber is configurable for propagating a photon beam as part of an ultrafast laser for removing calcium on or in heart valve tissue or for performing surgical intervention of the heart.
A method of decalcifying heart tissue or performing a surgical intervention directed at heart tissue comprising:
- performing optical coherence tomography using information obtained from light channeled through an optical fiber to visualize at least one of heart tissue and calcium deposited on or in heart tissue;
- targeting at least one of said calcium and a site to perform a surgical intervention of heart tissue by using visualization information obtained by said performing optical coherence tomography;
- and
- conducting at least one of removal of said targeted calcium and a surgical intervention directed at said targeted site of heart tissue using an ultrafast laser.
Use of an optical fiber during a heart tissue decalcification procedure to generate light used to visualize calcium deposits on or in heart tissue by way of optical coherence tomography.
A deflectable sheath or dilator or catheter used for cardiac procedures comprising:
- a shaft with a proximal end and a distal end comprising one or more lumens running along a length of said shaft;
- an optical fiber located in one of said one or more lumens for use in channeling light used for visualization of calcification, heart tissue architecture or the progress of the cardiac procedure;
- an inflatable balloon at said distal end of said shaft for pressing a heart valve leaflet in an open position;
- and
- a mechanical spiralling guidewire in contact with an inner surface of said balloon, said guidewire configured to propagate mechanical shockwaves to breakup calcium buildup on or in said heart tissue.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.