Dermatological treatment with visualization
First Claim
1. A handheld dermatological device, comprisinga housing capable of being manually manipulated to position a head portion of the housing in proximity to a person'"'"'s skin, said housing being adapted for delivery of treatment energy to a target skin region,an illumination source coupled to the housing for generating radiation to illuminate the target skin region,a detector coupled to said housing and adapted to primarily detect tissue scattered radiation emanating from said target skin region, anda shield mounted to the head portion to shield a second skin surface segment from direct application of radiation from said illumination sourcewherein said illumination source is adapted to deliver radiation to a first skin surface segment so as to illuminate said target region such that at least a portion of said scattered radiation reaches the detector via said second skin surface segment.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a handheld dermatological device for visualizing a skin treatment region prior to, during, or after therapeutic treatment with therapeutic energy. An apparatus according to the teachings of the invention can include an image capture device and a display device mounted to the apparatus and electrically coupled to the image capture device. The display device is capable of displaying images of the treatment area captured by the image capture device. The apparatus can further include a head capable of transmitting therapeutic energy to a treatment area, which can be precisely aligned by the user to a desired portion of the treatment area through the use of the display device. In some embodiments, the apparatus can include one or more illumination sources for illuminating a skin target region, and shield for shielding the image capture device from direct reflection of the illuminating radiation from a selected skin surface portion.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A handheld dermatological device, comprising
a housing capable of being manually manipulated to position a head portion of the housing in proximity to a person'"'"'s skin, said housing being adapted for delivery of treatment energy to a target skin region, an illumination source coupled to the housing for generating radiation to illuminate the target skin region, a detector coupled to said housing and adapted to primarily detect tissue scattered radiation emanating from said target skin region, and a shield mounted to the head portion to shield a second skin surface segment from direct application of radiation from said illumination source wherein said illumination source is adapted to deliver radiation to a first skin surface segment so as to illuminate said target region such that at least a portion of said scattered radiation reaches the detector via said second skin surface segment.
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21. A handheld dermatological device comprising
a housing capable of being manually manipulated to position a head portion of the housing in proximity to a person'"'"'s skin, said housing being adapted for delivery of treatment energy to a target skin region, an illumination source coupled to the housing for generating radiation to illuminate the target skin region, a detector disposed in said housing and adapted to primarily detect tissue scattered radiation emanating from said target skin region, and a first polarizer coupled to the illumination source and a second polarizer coupled to said detector, wherein said second polarizer is substantially orthogonal to said first polarizer.
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22. A handheld dermatological, comprising
a housing capable of being manually manipulated to position a head portion of the housing in proximity to a person'"'"'s skin, said housing being adapted for delivery of treatment energy to a target skin region, an illumination source coupled to the housing for generating radiation to illuminate the target skin region, a detector disposed in said housing and adapted to primarily detect tissue scattered radiation emanating from said target skin region, a radiation guiding element adapted to contact a skin surface region, said illumination source being optically coupled to the guiding element for coupling radiation into the guiding element so as to generate waves refractively coupled to the target region, a polarizer coupled to said detector to substantially prevent radiation reflected from said skin surface region from reaching the detector while allowing detection of radiation scattered from the target region in response to the refractively coupled waves, and another polarizer coupled to the illumination source having a polarization axis substantially orthogonal to said polarizer coupled to the detector.
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23. A method of treating a target skin region, comprising
illuminating the target skin region such that a first skin surface is illuminated with radiation such that at least a portion of the radiation penetrates the skin tissue below a second skin surface, detecting primarily tissue scattered radiation emanating from said target region in response to said illumination wherein the tissue scattered radiation substantially emanates from the second skin surface to obtain an image of the target skin region, and directing treatment energy to at least a portion of the target skin region, wherein said illuminating step comprises directing radiation along a first direction to the skin surface, and wherein said detecting step comprising detecting said scattered radiation along a second direction offset relative to said first direction.
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26. A method of treating a target skin region comprising,
illuminating the target skin region by directing radiation along a first direction to the skin surface, detecting primarily tissue scattered radiation emanating from said target region in response to said illumination along a second direction offset relative to said first direction, directing treatment energy to at least a portion of the target skin region, and shielding the second skin surface from direct application of the radiation.
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28. A handheld dermatological device, comprising:
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a housing for applying treatment energy to a portion of a person'"'"'s skin surface to treat a target skin region, an illumination source coupled to said housing for illuminating said target skin region from below said portion of the skin surface, and a shield disposed in said housing so as to substantially prevent said illumination source from directly illuminating said portion of the skin surface from above said portion of the skin surface.
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29. A handheld dermatological device, comprising:
- an illumination source for generating radiation to illuminate t-he a target skin region, a detector adapted to primarily detect tissue reflected, scattered radiation emanating from said target skin region, said illumination source being adapted to deliver radiation to a first skin surface segment so as to illuminate said target region such that at least a portion of said reflected, scattered radiation reaches the detector via a second skin surface segment.
- View Dependent Claims (30)
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31. A handheld dermatological device comprising:
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a source for generating treatment radiation for application to a target skin region, an illumination source for illuminating said target region, an imager capturing tissue reflected, scattered light from the illumination source thereby generating an image of the target region through a skin surface segment, a shield for substantially shielding at least a portion of said skin surface segment from direct illumination by said illumination source.
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Specification