US-20260123911-A1 - MINIATURIZED INTRAVASCULAR FLUORESCENCE-ULTRASOUND IMAGING CATHETER

US20260123911A1US 20260123911 A1US20260123911 A1US 20260123911A1US-20260123911-A1

Abstract

A hybrid NIRF/IVUS imaging probe containing i) a spatially-truncated optical lens a substantially-planar surface of which is inclined with respect to an axis to reflect light, transmitted between proximal and distal ends of the probe, internally into a body of the lens, and ii) an acoustic transducer disposed sequentially with the optical lens on the axis of the probe while, at the same time, the optical and electrical members of the probe transmitting the radiative and mechanical energies (which the probe exchanges with a target bodily vessel) are parallel to one another within the housing of the probe. A method for operating the probe resulting in formation of spatially co-registered optical and acoustic images of the target. Related imaging system and computer-program product.

Inventors

Stephan Kellnberger
Vasilis Ntziachristos
Dmitry Bozhko
Farouc Jaffer

Assignees

THE GENERAL HOSPITAL CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20250606

Claims (2)

1 . An imaging probe having a probe axis and comprising: an optically-transparent member extending from a proximal end of the probe to a distal end of the probe in parallel to the probe axis and terminated with an optical transceiver integrally affixed to the optically-transparent member at the distal end of the probe; and an electrically-conducting member extending from the proximal end of the probe to the distal end of the probe in parallel to the optically-transparent member and terminated with an acoustic transducer, wherein the acoustic transducer and the optical transceiver are disposed sequentially on the probe axis.
2 - 36 . (canceled)

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/734,622 filed Dec. 3, 2020, which is the National Stage of the International Application No. PCT/US 2019/035431 filed Jun. 4, 2019, and now published as WO 2019/236606, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/681,272, filed on Jun. 6, 2018. The disclosure of each of the above-identified patent applications is incorporated by reference herein, for all purposes. STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH This invention was made with government support under HL122388 awarded by the National Institutes of Health. The government has certain rights in the invention. TECHNICAL FIELD Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) procedure is the current clinical standard in intravascular imaging and is used for assessing anatomical characteristics of cardiovascular disease. Standalone IVUS imaging resolves structural features of cardiovascular disease. To improve imaging beyond collecting only anatomical information, related art combined the structural features related to the IVUS procedure with those facilitating the near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) molecular imaging. The hybrid NIRF-IVUS-enabled catheter enables simultaneous visualization of both pathophysiological and biological features of cardiovascular disease. Such combinations were empirically tested during the NIRF-IVUS imaging procedure of animals in vivo; however, significant limitations of current NIRF-IVUS catheters of related art are the large size of the NIRF-IVUS catheter that does not satisfy the clinical standards (in particular, with >1.5 mm diameter, as opposed to clinical standard IVUS which are ˜1 mm in diameter), and the lack of optical focus from prism-based solutions of related art. These two features limit high-quality, clinically safe NIRF-IVUS imaging of coronary arteries, and the solutions that allow overcoming these limitations have not been reported thus far. SUMMARY An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for operating an imaging probe having an axis and a sheath. The method includes at least the steps of: (i) transmitting light inside an optical member that extends along the axis inside the sheath between and connects the proximal end of the probe and an optical transceiver; and (ii) transmitting an electrical signal via an electrically-conducting member extending inside the sheath parallel to the optical member and connecting the proximal end of the probe and an acoustic transducer. Here, the optical transceiver is directly affixed to a distal end of the optical member and the acoustic transducer and the optical transceiver are disposed in sequence with one another along the axis. The method may additionally include the step of reflecting such light from a substantially-planar surface of the optical transceiver (which surface is inclined—that is, is neither parallel nor perpendicular to—with respect to an optical axis of the optical member; the reflection occurs internally in and into a body of the optical transceiver. In substantially any implementation, the method may additionally include at least one of the following: (a) outcoupling the light, that has been reflected internally into the body of the optical transceiver by the substantially-planar surface, through a spatially-curved surface of the optical transceiver into an ambient medium surrounding the optical transceiver to form a first beam of excitation light; and (b) coupling light, that has been collected by the optical transceiver through the spatially-curved surface of the optical transceiver from the ambient medium and reflected internally into the body of the optical transceiver by the substantially-planar surface, into the optical member to form a fluorescence signal delivered to the proximal end. In any of the above-defined implementations, the specific implementation of the step of transmitting light includes (1) transmitting light through the optical transceiver that is directly attached to the distal end of the optical member at a spatially-curved surface of the optical transceiver; and/or (2) transmitting light through a fluid that is sealed in a chamber containing said optical transceiver and that separates said optical transceiver from the sheath. Alternatively or in addition, the transmission of light through the fluid may include transmission of light through gas. Alternatively or in addition, the implementation of the method may include generating mechanical energy and directing such mechanical energy between a surface of the acoustic transducer (which surface is inclined with respect to the axis) and the target. In a specific implementation of this latter embodiment, at least one of the following conditions may be satisfied: (a) wherein the mechanical energy includes a second acoustic beam generated by the acoustic transducer; and further comprising spatially overlapping the first beam of the excitation light (