Apparatus for measuring velocity of blood flow in a blood vessel

Abstract

Apparatus is provided for measuring the velocity of blood in a blood vessel in a body as well as for measuring static pressure at one or more sites within the blood vessel. The apparatus employs an elongated optical fiber member carried within a tubular catheter having a proximal end and a distal end with the latter adapted to be inserted within a blood vessel so that the blood flowing therein is parallel to the catheter. A first pressure transducer is carried by the catheter adjacent the distal end thereof and responds to static pressure acting transversely of the catheter for modulating the intensity of any light passing through the optical fiber inversely proportional to the magnitude of the transversely acting static pressure. A second pressure transducer is carried by the catheter at the distal end thereof and responds to total pressure including both static and kinetic pressure, acting parallel to the catheter, and which modulates the intensity of any light passing through the optical fiber proportional to the magnitude of the total pressure. This permits the velocity of blood flowing in the blood vessel to be determined as a function of the difference between the total pressure and the transversely acting static pressure.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.