Method and apparatus for imaging of vessel segments

• US 20060058622A1
• Filed: 08/24/2005
• Published: 03/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The General Hospital Corporation (Mass General Brigham, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: The General Hospital Corporation (Mass General Brigham, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bouma, Brett Eugene, Tearney, Guillermo J., Shishkov, Milen
• Granted Patent: US 8,208,995 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/407
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0062 Arrangements for scanning
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0066 Optical coherence imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0084 for introduction into the body, e.g. by catheters A61B5/1459 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02007 Evaluating blood vessel condition, e.g. elasticity, compliance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6852 Catheters

Abstract

An apparatus, method and software arrangement for imaging a surface of a structure that is in contact with an opaque fluid is provided. The apparatus includes an article of manufacture (e.g., a housing), a fluid delivery arrangement and an imaging arrangement. The housing includes an aperture formed in the article of manufacture. The fluid delivery arrangement is configured to deliver a volume of substantially transparent fluid to the aperture formed in the housing. The imaging arrangement is configured to image the surface of the structure using an imaging modality after the volume of the transparent fluid is delivered to the aperture, wherein the imaging arrangement and/or the article of manufacture is translated along the surface of the structure while imaging the surface of the structure.

Claims

1. An apparatus for imaging a structure that is in contact with a first fluid, comprising:

an article of manufacture;

a fluid delivery arrangement configured to deliver a volume of a second fluid to an external location with respect to the article of manufacture; and

an imaging arrangement configured to image the structure at least one of during or after the volume of the second fluid is delivered to the external location, wherein at least one of the imaging arrangement or the article of manufacture is translated along a path which approximately corresponds to an axis of extension of a surface while imaging the structure.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the article of manufacture is a housing.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second fluid is a transparent fluid.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the structure is a blood vessel.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the fluid delivery arrangement is a pump operatively connected to the article of manufacture.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the fluid delivery arrangement is a syringe operatively connected to the article of manufacture.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the article of manufacture includes an aperture formed in the article of manufacture.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the fluid delivery arrangement comprises:

a transparent fluid reservoir containing the second fluid; and

a delivery conduit having a first end connected to the second fluid reservoir and a second end connected to the aperture of the housing.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the aperture of the article of manufacture is located at a distal end of the housing.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the aperture of the article of manufacture is located adjacent to the imaging arrangement.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the imaging arrangement includes:

a directing arrangement configured to direct light to a surface of the structure;

at least one optical fiber operatively connected to the directing arrangement; and

an image processing arrangement operatively connected to the at least one optical fiber.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the directing arrangement includes optics at the distal end of the imaging arrangement.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the directing arrangement includes a lens and a light directing element.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the directing element is an optical arrangement which is configured to alter at least one direction of light, the optical arrangement capable of directing the light from a direction substantially parallel to the greater axis of the article of manufacture to a direction substantially perpendicular to the greater axis of the article of manufacture.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the lens focuses the light approximately 0.5 mm to 5 mm beyond the article of manufacture.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a rotating arrangement operatively connected to the imaging arrangement and configured to rotate the imaging arrangement.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the rotating arrangement rotates at a rate of at least above approximately 30 rotations/second and at most approximately 1000 rotations/second.

18. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the imaging arrangement is rotated within the article of manufacture while imaging the structure.

19. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a pull-back arrangement operatively connected to the imaging arrangement and configured to translate the imaging arrangement relative to the article of manufacture.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the pull-back arrangement translates the imaging arrangement at a rate of at least approximately 1 mm/second and at most approximately 100 mm/second.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the pull-back arrangement translates the imaging arrangement at a rate of approximately 10 mm/second.

22. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the article of manufacture is transparent.

23. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the imaging modality is time domain optical coherence tomography, a spectral domain optical coherence tomography or a optical frequency domain imaging.

24. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second fluid is substantially transparent to radiation utilized by the imaging modality.

25. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a guide catheter configured to receive the article of manufacture therein.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the fluid delivery arrangement delivers the fluid to a proximal end of the guide catheter, and wherein the fluid flows through an aperture formed through the guide catheter.

27. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the imaging arrangement obtains data associated with the structure, and further comprising a processing arrangement receiving the data, and capable of controlling at least one of the fluid delivery arrangement or the imaging arrangement as a function of the data.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the processing arrangement controls at least one of the fluid delivery arrangement and the imaging arrangement based on information previously received by the processing arrangement.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the processing arrangement controls the translation of the imaging arrangement.

30. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the processing arrangement controls the fluid delivery of the fluid delivery arrangement.

31. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the processing arrangement controls the translation of the imaging arrangement and the fluid delivery of the fluid delivery arrangement.

32. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing arrangement controls the translation of the imaging arrangement.

33. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a catheter includes at least one the article of manufacture or the imaging arrangement.

34. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the fluid delivery arrangement delivers the second fluid through an internal portion of the catheter.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the imaging arrangement includes imaging optics which emits a beam to obtain the image, the beam being transmitted outside of the catheter.

36. A method for imaging a structure that is in contact with a first fluid, comprising:

(a) delivering a portion of a volume of a second fluid using a fluid delivery arrangement to an area proximal to the structure; and

(b) after step (a), imaging at least a portion of the structure using an imaging arrangement which is associated with an article of manufacture at least one of during or after the volume of the second fluid is delivered to the external location, wherein at least one of the imaging arrangement or the article of manufacture is translated along a path which approximately corresponds to an axis of extension of a surface at least one of during or after imaging the structure.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the second fluid is a transparent fluid.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein the structure is a blood vessel.

39. The method of claim 36, wherein the surface of the structure is an internal surface of a blood vessel.

40. The method of claim 36, wherein the fluid delivery arrangement is a pump.

41. The method of claim 36, wherein the fluid delivery arrangement is a syringe.

42. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

(c) after step (a), obtaining at least one characteristic of the structure; and

(d) after step (a), at one of (i) delivering a further portion of the volume of the second fluid using the fluid delivery arrangement to a further area local to the structure and (ii) translate the if the at least one characteristic is one of outside and inside the range of a particular result.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the steps (c) and (d) are iteratively performed.

44. The method of claim 42, wherein the quality of image metric is below the specific level if blood is detected.

45. The method of claim 42, wherein the quality of image metric is below the specific level if the image of the structure is at least partially blocked by blood.

46. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

(e) obtaining a characteristic of at least one of the first fluid and the structure; and

(f) discontinuing the imaging of the structure if the characteristic is one of outside and inside the range of a particular result.

47. The method of claim 46, further comprising:

(g) delivering another portion of the volume of the second fluid using the fluid delivery arrangement to another area local to the structure; and

(j) recommencing the imaging of the structure if the characteristic is one of outside and inside the range of the particular result.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the steps (g), (h), (i) and (j) are iteratively performed.

49. The method of claim 47, wherein the imaging arrangement utilizes an imaging modality.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the imaging modality is optical coherence tomography.

51. The method of claim 42, wherein the imaging modality is at least one of a spectral domain optical coherence tomography and a optical frequency domain imaging.

52. The method of claim 47, wherein the second fluid is a substantially transparent fluid.

53. The method of claim 36, wherein the imaging arrangement utilizes an imaging modality and wherein the second fluid is substantially transparent to radiation utilized by the imaging modality.

54. The method of claim 36, wherein step (b) further comprises obtaining data associated with the structure, and further comprises:

(c) controlling at least one of the fluid delivery arrangement and the imaging arrangement as a function of the data.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein step (c) comprises controlling the translation of the imaging arrangement.

56. The method of claim 54, wherein step (c) comprises controlling the fluid delivery of the fluid delivery arrangement.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein step (c) comprises controlling the translation of the imaging arrangement and the fluid delivery of the fluid delivery arrangement.

58. The method of claim 57 wherein the controlling substep is performed iteratively.

59. The method of claim 57, wherein, between iterations, the imaging arrangement is further translated.

60. The method of claim 57, wherein, between iterations, the imaging arrangement is further translated.

61. The method of claim 36, wherein step (b) is performed iteratively to produce a set of images representing different sections of the structure.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein the step of (c) further comprises associating each of the set of images with another one of the set of images.

63. A software arrangement that is adapted for imaging a structure that is in contact with a first fluid, wherein the software arrangement comprises:

a. a first set of instructions which, when executed by a processing arrangement, is configured to cause the processing arrangement to receive information regarding a delivery of a portion of a volume of a second fluid using a fluid delivery arrangement to an area local to the structure, and

b. a second set of instructions which, when executed by the processing arrangement, is configured to image at least a portion of the structure using an imaging arrangement,

wherein the information is regarding data obtained by an imaging arrangement, wherein the imaging arrangement is associated with an article of manufacture, and wherein at least one of the imaging arrangement or the article of manufacture is translated along a path which approximately corresponds to an axis of extension of a surface while imaging the structure after at least a portion of the volume of the second fluid is delivered to the area local to the structure.