The General Hospital Corporation

Adam Stacy-Clear

Rakesh K Jain

Richard Hardwick Moore

Daniel B Kopans

Yves Boucher

A method for locating a lesion within a tissue mass, includes steps of measuring a selected parameter at two or more points in at least one path through the tissue mass, the measure of the selected parameter in a lesion being different from that in normal tissue. Also, apparatus for measuring a tissue parameter at two or more points in at least one path through the tissue mass includes an insertion needle, distally sharpened and made sufficiently rigid so that it can be inserted distal end foremost into the tissue mass along the path, and, insertible with the needle, a sensor capable of prodding a measure of the tissue parameter at a point in the tissue mass along the path. Where the parameter is selected as one that has a measure different in a lesion type, the apparatus can be used in carrying out the method, whereby a measure at a point in the tissue mass of the selected tissue parameter provided by the sensor indicates that the point is within a lesion. In an embodiment for measuring interstitial fluid pressure in the tissue mass, the sensor includes a tube slidably engageable within the lumen of the insertion needle; the sensor tube is closed at a distal end, and the walls of the sensor tube and the insertion needle are prodded distally with ports, positioned in relation to the respective distal ends such that when the sensor tube is engaged within the insertion tube lumen the ports can be substantially aligned to provide fluid communication between the lumen of the sensor tube and the tissue adjacent the ports; the sensor tube lumen contains a plurality of filaments, and is operationally connected to a pressure measurement deuce such that the pressure measurement deuce is responsive to fluid pressure within the sensor tube lumen.

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Kingston Up Thames, United Kingdom

Adam Stacy-Clear