Thermal and stress mapping of body lumens
AssigneeSciMed Life Systems, Inc.
InventorsBrooke Q. Ren, Roger N. Hastings
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The inventive method requires advancing a three-dimensional imaging balloon catheter to the site of a lesion to be imaged, inflating or molding the balloon to image the lesion, deflating the balloon, withdrawing the catheter from the body lumen and re-inflating the balloon which reassumes its memorized shape. Stress and thermal mapping of the balloon is then done by direct observation or by numerical analysis of the material strain and color of the re-inflated 3D imaging balloon.
Claims17
A method of mapping a body lumen comprising the steps of:
- providing a catheter with a three-dimensional imaging balloon near a distal end of the catheter;
- advancing the distal end of the catheter to the portion of the body lumen to be mapped;
- expanding the balloon so that the balloon molds itself to and memorizes the three-dimensional geometry of the portion of the body lumen to be mapped;
- deflating the balloon;
- withdrawing the distal end of the catheter from the body lumen;
- reinflating the three-dimensional imaging balloon, which reassumes the memorized three-dimensional geometry of the portion of the body lumen to be mapped;
- stress mapping the portion of the body lumen to be mapped by analyzing the material strain of the reinflated three-dimensional imaging balloon.
A method of stress and thermal mapping a body lumen comprising the steps of:
- providing a catheter with a three-dimensional imaging balloon near a distal end of the catheter;
- advancing the distal end of the catheter to a portion of the body lumen containing a lesion;
- expanding the balloon so that the balloon molds itself to and memorizes the three-dimensional geometry of the lesion;
- deflating the balloon;
- withdrawing the distal end of the catheter from the body lumen;
- reinflating the three-dimensional imaging balloon, which reassumes the memorized three-dimensional geometry of the portion of the body lumen containing the lesion;
- digitizing the geometry of the surface of the reinflated three-dimensional imaging balloon;
- viewing the reinflated balloon under a polariscope using white light, which due to the optical birefringence of the three-dimensional imaging balloon material creates a color pattern on the balloon where the color at each point is determined by the relative stress between the longitudinal and circumferential axes of the balloon;
- calculating the material strain of the balloon surface based on the digitized geometry of the balloon surface;
- calculating a baseline color pattern based on the calculated material strain of the balloon surface;
- classifying the type of lesion based on the calculated material strain of the balloon surface, and
- determining whether the lesion is vulnerable by comparing the viewed color pattern to the calculated baseline color pattern, where the differences between the viewed and calculated color patterns quantify the surface temperature distribution of the lesion.
A method of thermally mapping a body lumen comprising the steps of:
- providing a catheter with a three-dimensional imaging balloon near a distal end of the catheter;
- advancing the distal end of the catheter to the portion of the body lumen to be mapped;
- expanding the balloon so that the balloon molds itself to and memorizes the three-dimensional geometry of the portion of the body lumen to be mapped;
- deflating the balloon;
- withdrawing the distal end of the catheter from the body lumen;
- reinflating the three-dimensional imaging balloon, which reassumes the memorized three-dimensional geometry of the portion of the body lumen to be mapped;
- determining a temperature map of the body lumen by observing the reinflated balloon.
A system of stress mapping a portion of a body lumen, comprising:
- an elongate catheter having a distal end and having a three-dimensional imaging balloon near a distal end of the catheter for memorizing the three-dimensional geometry of a portion of a body lumen, the elongate catheter being removed from the body lumen and reinflated after memorizing the three-dimensional geometry of a portion of body lumen;
- a stress mapping device for analyzing the material strain of the reinflated three-dimensional imaging balloon.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.