Off-Axis Optical Fiber Catheter for OCT Imaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current catheter-based OCT systems face challenges in achieving real-time imaging, particularly in atherectomy procedures, due to large and complex rotating mechanisms that increase the crossing profile and are costly, making them unsuitable for small diameter body lumens and tortuous vessels, and often require high-precision alignment, which is costly and complex to maintain.
Innovation Solution
The use of off-axis optical fibers in catheters that rotate independently of the handle, with a fiber management pathway to prevent bending and tangling, allowing for common-path interferometry and 360° circumferential views without breaking the fiber continuity, thus reducing the crossing profile and enabling more precise and cost-effective imaging.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional rotating mechanisms are used in catheter-based OCT systems, then imaging capability is achieved, but the crossing profile increases and device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the rotating mechanism from the catheter body and places it in the handle assembly. The optical fiber remains stationary within the catheter while the entire catheter rotates as a unit, eliminating the need for complex in-catheter rotating components and reducing the crossing profile.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a fiber management pathway as an intermediary structure that guides and protects the optical fiber during catheter rotation. This pathway prevents fiber tangling and bending while allowing the catheter to rotate freely, maintaining imaging capability without increasing crossing profile.
2Reliability
If traditional rotating mechanisms are used in catheter-based OCT systems, then imaging capability is achieved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes complex rotating mechanisms from the catheter and consolidates rotation functionality into the handle assembly. This extraction simplifies the catheter structure while maintaining imaging capability through catheter-based rotation.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter itself serves as the rotating component rather than requiring a separate rotating mechanism. The catheter rotates as a unified structure with the handle, using its own structural integrity to enable imaging without additional complex parts.
3Stability of the object's composition
If off-axis optical fiber is used with rotating catheter, then fiber continuity is maintained, but fiber bending and tangling may occur
Solution Approach 1:
The fiber management pathway acts as an intermediary structure that constrains and guides the optical fiber during catheter rotation. This pathway prevents the fiber from bending beyond safe radii or becoming tangled while allowing the off-axis configuration to maintain fiber continuity.
Solution Approach 2:
The fiber management pathway employs flexible structural elements that can accommodate catheter rotation while maintaining appropriate bend radii for the optical fiber. This flexible structure prevents tangling and excessive bending without restricting the necessary rotational movement.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution enables real-time, high-resolution imaging with minimal impact on the catheter's crossing profile, allowing for effective visualization and treatment of small diameter vessels while reducing costs and complexity, and maintaining image quality without the need for high-precision alignment.
Implementation Method 1
an optical fiber extending along the length of the catheter body while being radially displaced (off-axis) from the longitudinal axis (midline) of the catheter body
Implementation Method 2
a proximal handle rotationally coupled to the catheter body; and a fiber management pathway within the handle configured to allow the off-axis optical fiber to rotate with the catheter body, relative to the handle
Data Source
AI summary
A system for imaging a body lumen includes a controller and a display. The controller is configured to connect to a proximal end of a catheter having an optical fiber extending along the length of an elongate catheter body. The controller is further configured to rotate a distal end of the optical fiber from a location near a proximal end of the elongate catheter body, acquire optical coherence tomography (OCT) images using the optical fiber as the distal end of the optical fiber rotates, and determine a rotational lag of the distal end of the optical fiber. The display is configured to display one or more OCT images corrected for the rotational lag.