Meridian Medical Systems, LLC

Other

Coral Sand Beach LLC

Applied Thermologic, LLC

Advanced Caridiac Therapeutics Inc.

Meridian Medical Sysstems, LLC

Meridian Medicalssystems, LLC

Kenneth L Carr, Jr

Robert Chris Allison

Timothy Lenihan

Peter Van Der Sluis

Heat treatment apparatus for inactivating viruses in blood includes a series of four tubing coils with connectors at the opposite ends of the series for connecting the tubing to a blood source and a blood destination, a microwave heating chamber arranged to receive the first coil of the series, a dwell chamber to receive the second coil of the series, a cooling chamber adapted to receive the third coil of the series, and a microwave reheating chamber to receive the fourth coil of the series, with the first, second, and fourth chambers employing microwave energy for heating the blood as it flows within the coils and providing a radiometer circuit for monitoring the temperatures of the blood in the first, second, and fourth coils to produce first, second, and fourth temperature signals in response thereto, which is responded to by a controller to control the energy producing means to impart a selected time/temperature profile to the blood flowing through the tubing and to deliver that blood at a selected delivery temperature.

Elimination of viruses in blood through microwave techniques

Catheter apparatus comprises a coaxial cable having proximal and distal ends. The cable includes a hollow center conductor, an outer conductor and an electrically insulating layer between the conductors. An antenna is at the distal end of the cable, and a diplexer is connected to the cable, the diplexer including a transmit path for connecting the antenna to a transmitter which transmits first frequency signals and a receive path for connecting the antenna to a receiver which detects second frequency signals the diplexer isolating the signals on the two paths from one another. A transmission line connects the cable to the diplexer, the transmission line having a segment with a tubular inner conductor one end of which is connected to the center conductor and a second end of which is adapted for connection to a coolant source, the center and inner conductors forming a continuous coolant pathway.

Heating/sensing catheter apparatus for minimally invasive applications

A microwave radiometric sensor probe module configured to fit within at least an external portion of an auditory or ear canal of a patient encloses a microwave integrated circuit and associated waveguide printed probe. The probe is configured to receive microwave radiation from a dielectric rod antenna of the module oriented into the auditory canal towards a tympanic membrane. Radiation from the tympanic membrane is coupled into the rod antenna, projected towards the printed probe, and received at the integrated circuit. A communications interface connects the integrated circuit to a temperature monitor and control unit for receiving the sensor output and for deriving at least a measure of patient brain temperature from the sensor output. The temperature monitor and control unit may be connected to a targeted temperature management system for controlling the temperature of a patient on the basis of the derived brain temperature.

Noninvasive microwave radiometric sensing of a tympanic membrane

A low profile temperature transducer has a working surface for placement against a body surface and a first output. The transducer is a flat laminate composed of alternating conductive and dielectric layers. The laminate defines at least one slotline antenna for exposure to the body surface to pick up thermal emissions from the underlying tissue at depth. A feed network having a characteristic impedance is connected to the first output and a slotline-to-stripline transition is connected between the at least one antenna and the feed network, the transition providing a match between the impedance at the at least one antenna and the characteristic impedance. Also, a temperature sensor may be present at the working surface to detect the body surface temperature under the transducer, that surface temperature being used to calculate actual temperature at depth.

Low profile temperature transducer

Apparatus for detecting intracranial temperature and blood oxygenation includes a transducer having a working surface for placement against a patient's cranium. The transducer forms a microwave antenna having walls defining an aperture having a pair of opposite broader boundaries and a pair of opposite narrower boundaries at the working surface. The antenna is tuned to a frequency which produces a first output signal indicative of heat emanating from the cranium. An oxygen saturation sensor sharing that aperture includes a radiation emitter located at one of narrower boundaries which directs electromagnetic radiation across the aperture to a radiation detector at the other of the narrower boundaries and which produces a corresponding second output signal. A control unit includes a display and a processor for processing the signals to calculate an intracranial temperature and an oxygen saturation value for display by the control unit.

Dual mode temperature transducer with oxygen saturation sensor

Apparatus for aligning an ablation catheter and a temperature probe relatively for an ablation procedure includes an ablation catheter with a first antenna for ablating tissue at an ablation site in a patient's body and a temperature probe for placement in a body passage having a wall portion adjacent to the ablation site so that a second antenna in the probe is positioned opposite the first antenna. A microwave source provides a pulse modulated microwave signal to one of the antennas and a radiometer is in circuit with the other antenna. A synchronizing device in circuit with the microwave source and the radiometer enables the radiometer to synchronously detect the microwave signal so that the radiometer provides an alignment signal whose strength reflects the degree of alignment of the first and second antennas which signal may be used to control an alignment display. An alignment method using the apparatus is also disclosed.

Method and apparatus for aligning an ablation catheter and a temperature probe during an ablation procedure

Apparatus for detecting thermal radiation emanating from two different intracranial depths in a patient includes a transducer having a surface for placement against the patient's cranium. The transducer includes a first antenna with an aperture adjacent that surface the antenna being tuned to a first frequency and producing a first signal indicative of thermal radiation received within an antenna pattern extending a first distance from the surface and a second antenna having a second aperture adjacent to that surface within the first aperture. The second antenna is tuned to a second frequency and produces a second signal indicative of radiation received within an antenna pattern extending a selected second distance from the working surface, the second distance being shorter than the first distance. The two signals are coupled to a receiver/control unit which thereupon monitors and displays the temperature at the two intracranial depths.

Dual mode intracranial temperature detector

A radiometric heating/sensing probe for radiating electromagnetic waves of a first frequency capable of heating tissue and detecting electromagnetic waves of a second frequency emitted by the tissue indicating tissue temperature. The probe includes a dual frequency antenna, a signal transmitting path to the antenna and a signal receiving path from the antenna to a radiometer. A diplexer connected between those paths inside the probe includes a quarter wave stub in the form of a shorted slab line-type transmission line in the signal transmitting path. The entire probe package is only about 0.4 in. long and 0.08 in. in diameter so that it can be used in many minimally invasive applications.

Radiometric heating/sensing probe

Microwave warming apparatus includes a housing defining a heating waveguide with a longitudinal ridge and a heating cavity. A slot extends through the ridge into the heating cavity for receiving a cartridge containing a looped tube so that the tube extends into the heating cavity where the tube contents are heated by energy coupled into the waveguide. Receiving waveguides adjacent to the slot sense the thermal radiation emanating from the tube and deliver corresponding signals to a radiometer which produces a temperature indication. The cartridge includes a support member which maintains the shape of the tube loop. A pair of notches in the support member have walls enabling the notches to complete the receiving waveguides in the housing.

In-line microwave warming apparatus

A method for measuring the contact force exerted on tissue by a probe for heating the tissue and containing an antenna which is connected to a radiometer whose output reading indicates the temperature at depth of the tissue contacted by the probe comprises displaying the output reading of the radiometer, applying sufficient power to the probe to heat the tissue to a selected first temperature that is not lethal to the tissue, moving the probe into contact with the tissue, observing the increase in the displayed temperature reading that occurs when the probe contacts the tissue, and advancing the probe toward the tissue until the displayed temperature reading reaches a value corresponding to a selected tissue contact force. After the probe position in the tissue has stabilized, the applied power to the probe may be increased to heat the tissue to a selected second temperature that is lethal to tissue for a sufficient time to ablate the tissue followed by lowering the tissue heating to a sub-lethal temperature. Apparatus for practicing the method is also disclosed.

Method and apparatus for measuring catheter contact force during a medical procedure

Apparatus for detecting thermal radiation emanating from two different intracranial depths in a patient includes a dual-mode transducer having a working surface for placement against a patient's cranium. The transducer includes a first antenna with an aperture adjacent the working surface that first antenna being tuned to a first frequency and producing a first output signal indicative of thermal radiation received within an antenna pattern extending a selected first distance from the working surface and a second antenna having a second aperture adjacent to the working surface within the first aperture. The second antenna is tuned to a second frequency and produces a second output signal indicative of thermal radiation received within an antenna pattern extending a selected second distance from the working surface, the second distance being shorter than the first distance. The two output signals are coupled to a receiver/control unit which thereupon monitors and displays the temperature at the two intracranial depths.

Microwave warming apparatus includes a housing defining a heating waveguide with a heating cavity. An integral internal electrically conductive ridge projects from one of the longitudinal waveguide walls and extends along the waveguide. A slot having opposite ends extends from the outside through the ridge into the heating cavity, the slot being adapted to receive a cartridge containing a tube so that the tube extends through the slot into the heating cavity. Electromagnetic energy is coupled into the heating waveguide to heat the contents of the tube. A transducer constituted by a first receiving waveguide inside the ridge is adjacent to the slot so that when a cartridge is received in the slot, the transducer can sense the thermal radiation emanating from a segment of the tube and produce a corresponding waveguide-generated signal. A radiometer in the housing is responsive to the waveguide-generated signal and produces a temperature indicating signal.

Apparatus for detecting vulnerable plaques embedded in the wall of a patient's blood vessel includes an intravascular catheter containing a microwave antenna, an extracorporeal radiometer having a signal input, a reference input and an output, a cable for electrically connecting the antenna to the signal input, and a device for applying an indication of the patient's normal tissue temperature to the reference input so that when the catheter is moved along the vessel, the locations of the vulnerable plaques are reflected in a signal from the output as thermal anomalies due to the higher emissivity of the vulnerable plaques as compared to the normal tissue. A second embodiment of the apparatus has two coaxial antennas in the catheter serving two radiometers. One measures the temperature at locations in the vessel wall, the other measures the temperature at the surface. By subtracting the two signals, the locations of vulnerable plaque may be visualized.

Apparatus for detecting and treating vulnerable plaques

Medical catheter apparatus for minimally invasive applications includes a probe for radiating electromagnetic waves of a first frequency capable of heating tissue and detecting thermal emissions from that tissue of a second frequency indicative of tissue temperature. The probe has an inner conductor extending along the probe to a conductive probe tip and a concentric tubular outer conductor having a leading end spaced rearwardly from the probe tip and a closed trailing end shorted to the inner conductor. A dielectric sheath surrounds the outer conductor which sheath has a leading end spaced rearwardly from the leading end of the outer conductor. A diplexer integrated into the probe includes a filter circuit positioned inside the outer conductor and a coupling capacitor connected between a point on the inner conductor and the input of the filter circuit such that the conductors between that point and the shorted trailing end of the outer conductor constitute a quarter wave stub at the second frequency.

Integrated heating/sensing catheter apparatus for minimally invasive applications

The present technique utilizes microwave radiometry to detect the presence of vulnerable plaques engrained in the wall of a blood vessel. In accordance with the technique, an intravascular catheter containing at least one microwave antenna is moved along the suspect vessel. The antenna, in combination with an external microwave detection and display unit, is able to detect and display thermal anomalies due to the difference in the thermal emissivity (brightness) of vulnerable plaques as compared to normal tissue even though the two may have a common temperature.

Growing community of inventors

Woolwich, ME, United States of America

Kenneth L Carr, Jr