Temperature mapping balloon

• US 20040147852A1
• Filed: 01/24/2003
• Published: 07/29/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Medtronic Vascular, Inc. (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: Medtronic Vascular, Inc. (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Brister, Mark, Carney, James, Thompson, Dave
• Granted Patent: US 7,081,096 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/549
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00082 Balloons
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/015 By temperature mapping of body part

Abstract

The temperature mapping balloon of the present invention provides a device for locating inflammation and increased metabolic activity associated with conditions such as vulnerable plaque, by mapping temperature of a body lumen, such as an artery or blood vessel. The temperature mapping balloon comprises a balloon with a thermal mapping coating disposed on the inside or outside of the balloon. The thermal mapping coating can be a thermochromic coating that changes color in response to temperature or a sensor coating comprising a plurality of temperature sensors.

Claims

1. A temperature mapping balloon comprising:

a balloon; and

a thermal mapping coating, the thermal mapping coating disposed on the balloon.

2. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 1 wherein the thermal mapping coating is disposed in a location selected from the group consisting of outside the balloon and inside the balloon.

3. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 1 further comprising a position indicator disposed on the balloon.

4. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 3 wherein the position indicator is selected from the group consisting of radiopaque markers, radio-frequency (RF) coils, and ultrasonic marker transponders.

5. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 1 wherein the thermal mapping coating comprises a thermochromic coating.

6. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 5 wherein the thermochromic coating is readable by a method selected from the group consisting of visual reading and optical scanning machine reading.

7. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 5 wherein a substance for the thermochromic coating is selected from the group consisting of active substances, state change substances, phase change substances, crystalline state change substances, and crystalline structure change substances.

8. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 5 wherein the thermochromic coating is a uniform coating.

9. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 5 wherein

the thermochromic coating comprises a plurality of arrays,

each of the plurality of arrays comprises a plurality of bistable dots,

the bistable dots change from one color to another color in response to a threshold temperature, and

the threshold temperatures for the bistable dots in each of the plurality of arrays are distributed over a temperature range.

10. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 1 wherein the thermal mapping coating comprises a sensor coating, the sensor coating comprising a plurality of temperature sensors.

11. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 10 further comprising an insulating layer disposed on the sensor coating.

12. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 11 wherein the insulating layer is a material selected from the group consisting of parylene, silicone rubber, polytetrafluoroethylene, polyurethane, and plastic.

13. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 10 wherein the sensor coating is made of materials selected from the group consisting of nickel, copper, platinum, chromium, iron, rhodium, aluminum, conducting graphite polymers, and alloys and combinations thereof.

14. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 10 wherein the temperature sensors are selected from the group consisting of thermocouples, thermisters, resistance thermometers, resistive temperature detectors (RTDs), PN junctions, and thermal piles.

15. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 10 wherein each of the plurality of temperature sensors provides a temperature signal, and the temperature signals from the plurality of temperature sensors are multiplexed.

16. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 10 wherein sensor coating includes strain relieving features selected from the group consisting of strain relieving cuts and accordion pleats.

18. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 1 further comprising means for indicating position of the vessel wall contacting means.

19. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 1 wherein the temperature mapping means comprises means for changing color, the color changing means being responsive to temperature.

20. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 1 wherein the temperature mapping means comprises means for sensing temperature and generating at least one temperature signal.

21. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 4 wherein the temperature sensing means generates a plurality of temperature signals and further comprising means for multiplexing the plurality of temperature signals.

22. The temperature mapping balloon of claim 4 further comprising means for insulating the temperature sensing means.

24. The method of claim 7 further comprising coating the temperature mapping coating with an insulating coating.

25. The method of claim 7 wherein coating the balloon with a temperature mapping coating comprises applying the temperature mapping coating to the balloon by an application method selected from the group consisting of dipping, spraying, micro-spraying, inkjet spraying, painting, wiping, rolling, printing, pad printing, inkjet printing, spraying with a mask, printing, dot matrix printing, photolithography, vapor deposition, electrostatic deposition, and combinations thereof.

26. The method of claim 7 wherein coating the balloon with a temperature mapping coating comprises applying the temperature mapping coating to a thin sheet and affixing the thin sheet to the balloon.

27. The method of claim 10 wherein the thin sheet includes longitudinal cuts.

28. The method of claim 7 further comprising disposing a position indictor on the balloon.

30. The method of claim 13 wherein reading a vessel temperature map comprises reading the vessel temperature map visually.

31. The method of claim 13 wherein reading a vessel temperature map comprises reading the vessel temperature map with an optical scanning machine.

32. The method of claim 15 wherein the optical scanning machine converts the vessel temperature map to digital data.

17. A temperature mapping balloon for use on a vessel wall comprising:

means for contacting the vessel wall; and

means for mapping temperature, the temperature mapping means coating the vessel wall contacting means.

23. A method for manufacturing a temperature mapping balloon comprising:

providing a balloon;

coating the balloon with a temperature mapping coating.

29. A method of using a temperature mapping balloon with a patient comprising:

providing a thermochromic temperature mapping balloon;

inserting the thermochromic temperature mapping balloon into the patient;

inflating the thermochromic temperature mapping balloon;

allowing thermochromic temperature mapping balloon temperature to stabilize;

deflating the thermochromic temperature mapping balloon;

removing the thermochromic temperature mapping balloon from the patient; and

reading a vessel temperature map from the temperature mapping balloon.