The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 09, 2003
Filed:
Jan. 19, 2001
Kenton W. Gregory, Portland, OR (US);
Other;
Abstract
A myocardial revascularization device has a catheter suitable for use in a myocardial revascularization procedure, the catheter including an elongate body having a proximal end and a distal end, and tissue-ablating means housed at least partially within the catheter and capable of effectuating tissue ablation adjacent the distal end of the catheter. The device further has an optical reflectance fiber housed within the catheter and coupled to an optical reflectance system. The device is operative to transmit a reflectance signal in the optical reflectance fiber, the reflectance signal including either short optical pulses or low-coherence light. The optical reflectance system is operative to gauge tissue ablation, measure a thickness of tissue adjacent the catheter, and/or determine a position of the distal end relative to adjacent tissue using either of optical time-domain reflectance or optical coherence interferometry.