Ucl Business Plc

The General Hospital Corporation

Adrien Desjardins

Ioannis Papakonstantinou

Malcolm Finlay

Charles Alexander Mosse

Guillermo J Tearney

Brett Eugene Bouma

Benjamin J Vakoc

Paul Beard

Edward Zhiyi Zhang

Radhika Poduval

Sacha Noimark

Joanna M Coote

Erwin Alles

A method for making a housing that defines a cavity for a pressure sensor, the method comprising: providing a bulk of material that will form the housing; focusing a radiation beam on internal portions of the bulk of material so as to modify the internal portions, thereby defining the housing's shape, wherein upstream of the focus of the radiation beam other portions of the bulk material remain unmodified; and discarding either the modified portions or the unmodified portions of the bulk material so as to form the cavity.

Method of fabricating a fibre-optic pressure and temperature sensor

A sensor is provided for measuring a flow of a fluid in a physiological environment, such as within a vessel of a human or animal subject. The sensor comprises an interrogation light guide extending from a proximal end to a distal end of the sensor. The interrogation light guide is configured to transmit interrogation light to, and receive reflected interrogation light from, the distal end of the sensor. The sensor further comprises an excitation light guide configured to transmit excitation light to the distal end of the sensor. The excitation light is provided for heating the fluid (directly or indirectly). The sensor further comprises a sensing element located at the distal end of the sensor. The sensing element comprises at least two etalons for reflecting interrogation light back along the interrogation light guide towards the proximal end of the sensor. Each etalon has a respective optical path length and further has at least one reflective surface external to the interrogation light guide. The sensing element is configured to be in thermal contact with the fluid such that the optical path length of at least one etalon is dependent on a temperature of the fluid. The reflected interrogation light forms an interferogram which is dependent on the optical path lengths of the respective etalons.

Sensor for measuring a flow of a fluid

Provided herein is a probe for ultrasound imaging of tissue. The probe comprises an optical relay having an optically absorbing coating at the distal end of the probe for generating ultrasound from excitation light via the photoacoustic effect, wherein the generated ultrasound propagates as an ultrasound beam into the tissue; and an ultrasound receiver separate from the optical relay. The optical relay is configured to receive as input a time-varying spatial pattern of excitation light at the proximal end of the probe and to transmit the excitation light to the distal end of the probe to illuminate the optically absorbing coating in accordance with said time-varying spatial pattern, thereby generating ultrasound from the excitation light via the photoacoustic effect to propagate as a scanning ultrasound beam into the tissue. The ultrasound receiver is configured to receive reflections of the ultrasound from tissue. Such an ultrasound probe may be incorporated, for example, into a transseptal puncture needle.

Ultrasound probe

An ultrasound system comprises an ultrasound unit including: an ultrasound probe including a first set of imaging transducer elements and a second set of localisation transducer elements. The first set of imaging transducer elements are configured to: (i) produce ultrasound imaging transmissions into the human body, wherein the ultrasound imaging transmissions are focussed into an image scan plane, and (ii) receive reflections of the ultrasound imaging transmissions for generating a two-dimensional anatomical image corresponding to the image scan plane. The second set of localisation transducer elements are configured to produce ultrasound localisation transmissions into the human body for locating the medical instrument with respect to the anatomical image, wherein the ultrasound localisation transmissions extend outside the image scan plane.

Method and apparatus for determining the location of a medical instrument with respect to ultrasound imaging, and a medical instrument to facilitate such determination

Arrangements, apparatus and methods are provided according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention. In particular, at least one first electro-magnetic radiation may be received and at least one second electro-magnetic radiation within a solid angle may be forwarded to a sample. The second electro-magnetic radiation may be associated with the first electro-magnetic radiation. A plurality of third electro-magnetic radiations can be received from the sample which is associated with the second electro-magnetic radiation, and at least one portion of the third electro-magnetic radiation is provided outside a periphery of the solid angle. Signals associated with each of the third electro-magnetic radiations can be simultaneously detected, with the signals being associated with information for the sample at a plurality of depths thereof. The depths can be determined using at least one of the third electro-magnetic radiations without a need to utilize another one of the third electro-magnetic radiations.

Methods and systems for performing angle-resolved Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography

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London, United Kingdom

Adrien Desjardins