Method of recognizing abnormal tissue using the detection of early increase in microvascular blood content
First Claim
1. A method of providing an indication that living tissue of a body may be abnormal comprising the steps of:
- inserting an illumination probe such that a light source within the illumination probe is disposed in a location that is at a surface of an organ;
illuminating, at the location, tissue of the organ and microvasculature therein with light from the light source that is emitted from the illumination probe, wherein the tissue that is illuminated with the light does not contain the living tissue that may be abnormal;
detecting interacted light that results from the step of illuminating the tissue as detected data, wherein the interacted light is obtained substantially from the light that then interacts with blood in the microvasculature that is within the tissue of the organ, which tissue does not contain the living tissue that may be abnormal;
estimating at least one of blood content and blood flow in the microvasculature using the detected data; and
obtaining the indication that the living tissue may be abnormal using the at least one of estimated blood content and blood flow, the step of obtaining including the step of determining whether there exists an increase in the at least one of estimated blood content and blood flow in the microvasculature.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention, in one aspect, relates to a method for examining a target for tumors or lesions using what is referred to as “Early Increase in microvascular Blood Supply” (EIBS) that exists in tissues that are close to, but are not themselves, the abnormal tissue and in tissues that precede the development of such lesions or tumors. While the abnormal tissue can be a lesion or tumor, the abnormal tissue can also be tissue that precedes formation of a lesion or tumor, such as a precancerous adenoma, aberrant crypt foci, tissues that precede the development of dysplastic lesions that themselves do not yet exhibit dysplastic phenotype, and tissues in the vicinity of these lesions or pre-dysplastic tissues.
83 Citations
83 Claims
-
1. A method of providing an indication that living tissue of a body may be abnormal comprising the steps of:
-
inserting an illumination probe such that a light source within the illumination probe is disposed in a location that is at a surface of an organ;
illuminating, at the location, tissue of the organ and microvasculature therein with light from the light source that is emitted from the illumination probe, wherein the tissue that is illuminated with the light does not contain the living tissue that may be abnormal;
detecting interacted light that results from the step of illuminating the tissue as detected data, wherein the interacted light is obtained substantially from the light that then interacts with blood in the microvasculature that is within the tissue of the organ, which tissue does not contain the living tissue that may be abnormal;
estimating at least one of blood content and blood flow in the microvasculature using the detected data; and
obtaining the indication that the living tissue may be abnormal using the at least one of estimated blood content and blood flow, the step of obtaining including the step of determining whether there exists an increase in the at least one of estimated blood content and blood flow in the microvasculature. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 80, 81, 82, 83)
-
-
77. A method of providing an indication that living tissue within an organ of a body may be abnormal comprising the steps of:
-
identifying tissue of the organ that contains microvasulature therein, wherein the tissue does not contain the living tissue that may be abnormal; and
determining from the blood content within the microvasculature whether an early increase in microvascular blood supply exists in the tissue to indicate whether the living tissue may be abnormal. - View Dependent Claims (78, 79)
-
Specification