Method and apparatus to identify vulnerable plaques with thermal wave imaging of heated nanoparticles

• US 9,289,131 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2011
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Board of Regents of the University of Texas System (University of Texas System)
• Original Assignee: Board of Regents of the University of Texas System (University of Texas System)
• Inventors: Castella, Paul, Kim, Jihoon
• Primary Examiner(s): CHAO, ELMER M
• Application Number:
  US13/312,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20120150031A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,568 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0066 Optical coherence imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/416 the spleen
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6852 Catheters
• CPC Class Codes: A61K 49/00 Preparations for testing in vivo
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/403 for thermotherapy, e.g. hyperthermia
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2/02 using magnetic fields produced by coils, including single turn loops or electromagnets A61N2/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61P 9/00 Drugs for disorders of the cardiovascular system
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/1717 with a modulation of one or more physical properties of the sample during the optical investigation, e.g. electro-reflectance
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/4795 spatially resolved investigating of object in scattering medium in vivo A61B

Abstract

Provided herein are systems, methods, and compositions for the thermal imaging of cells with nanoparticles.

Claims

1. A thermal imaging device comprising:

a. a catheter body optically coupled to a conduit, a thermal sensor coupled to a thermal imaging apparatus, the thermal imaging apparatus coupled to an optical coherence tomography system, and a heating element coupled to a heating source, wherein the heating source is configured to provide a modulation frequency selected at one or more frequencies to create a magnitude and a phase difference of thermal waves between a nanoparticle and a background area of the nanoparticle and the thermal imaging apparatus amplifies the phase difference of thermal wave by multiplication of the intensity of the heating; and

b. a computer processor configured to process the magnitude and phase difference of the thermal wave from the background area to produce a thermal image.

2. The thermal imaging device of claim 1, wherein the heating source is a laser source emitting pulsed light to heat the nanoparticle and produce a contrast between the nanoparticle and the background area of the nanoparticle.

3. The thermal imaging device of claim 2, wherein the laser source is coupled to a light detector and a frequency controller.

4. The thermal imaging device of claim 1, wherein the catheter body is coupled to a pull-back mechanism, including a mount for the conduit of the catheter body.

5. The thermal imaging device of claim 1, wherein the heating source is a magnet.

6. The thermal imaging device of claim 5, wherein the heating source is configured to apply an oscillating magnetic field.

7. The thermal imaging device of claim 1, wherein the thermal sensor is a thermistor.

8. The thermal imaging device of claim 1, further comprising an ultrasound system operatively coupled to the thermal imaging apparatus.

9. The thermal imaging device of claim 1, further comprising a system operatively coupled to the thermal imaging apparatus to administer a plurality of metallic nanoparticles as to decrease phase values at a specific modulation frequency as nanoparticle thermal wave strength (dTo-np) increased.

10. The thermal imaging device of claim 9, wherein at least one nanoparticle is configured to localize to a target site.

11. The thermal imaging device of claim 10, wherein the nanoparticles are substantially spherical and have a diameter from about 0.1 nanometers to about 1000.0 nanometers in size.

12. The thermal imaging device of claim 9, wherein the nanoparticles are multifunctional nanoparticles including an aminodextran coating.

13. The thermal imaging device of claim 9, wherein the nanoparticle is coated with a light responsive compound that is selectively released upon incident light.

14. The thermal imaging device of claim 1, wherein the heat source is coupled to a mirror element and the mirror element is configured to rotate in a 360 degree arc.

15. The thermal imaging device of claim 1, wherein the heating element further comprises generating light energy emitted by a pulsed laser source.

16. The thermal imaging device of claim 1, wherein the computer processor is configured to process the thermal wave from the background areas (BK) by the formula:

17. The thermal imaging device of claim 1, wherein the heat source includes a wavelength of light between at least 800-1300 nm to avoid chromophores in the background of the nanoparticles.

18. The thermal imaging device of claim 1, wherein the heating source is configured to inversely modulate the frequency proportional to the thermal-wave attenuation distance (LD).

19. The thermal imaging device of claim 1, wherein the thermal sensor is operably coupled to an infrared camera.

20. The thermal imaging device of claim 19, wherein the thermal sensor further comprises an infrared radiation sensor, which can be electrically coupled to an electrical wire to transmit the infrared radiation signal to an infrared camera.