By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Pharma Business Week — According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors Phan, Huy D. (San Jose, CA); Wizeman, William (Mountain View, CA); Kaplan, Gary (Mountain View, CA); Webster, Noah D. (San Francisco, CA), filed on May 15, 2013, was made available online on February 6, 2014 (see also technology-Companies.html”>Biotechnology Companies).
The assignee for this patent application is Boston Scientific Scimed, Inc.
Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The anatomy of a lung includes multiple airways. As a result of certain genetic and/or environmental conditions, an airway may become fully or partially obstructed, resulting in an airway disease such as emphysema, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and asthma. Certain obstructive airway diseases, including, but not limited to, COPD and asthma, are reversible. Treatments have accordingly been designed in order to reverse the obstruction of airways caused by these diseases.
“One treatment option includes management of the obstructive airway diseases via pharmaceuticals. For example, in a patient with asthma, inflammation and swelling of the airways may be reversed through the use of short-acting bronchodilators, long-acting bronchodilators, and/or anti-inflammatories. Pharmaceuticals, however, are not always a desirable treatment option because in many cases they do not produce permanent results or patients are resistant or non-compliant when it comes to drug therapies.
“Accordingly, more durable and effective treatment options have been developed in the form of energy delivery systems, which include energy delivery devices for reversing obstruction of airways. Such devices may be designed to contact an airway of a lung to deliver energy at a desired intensity for a period of time that allows for the airway tissue (e.g., smooth muscle, nerve tissue, etc.) to be altered and/or ablated. Often, however, treatment of an airway is required at multiple locations along a length of the airway, and these locations may or may not be known prior to insertion of an energy delivery device into the airway. There is accordingly a need for an energy delivery system that enables mapping, real-time tracking, and/or locating of an energy delivery device in order to treat multiple tissue locations within an airway of a body based on that tracking.”
In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “In accordance with the present disclosure, methods and systems for treating tissue defining a passageway in a body are disclosed. The method may include positioning an energy delivery device in the passageway. The energy delivery device may include an elongate member having an energy emitting portion at a distal portion of the elongate member. In addition, the method may include contacting the tissue defining the passageway with the energy emitting portion, moving the energy delivery device along the passageway, real-time tracking a location and movement of the energy delivery device in the passageway, and delivering energy to the tissue according to the real-time tracked location and movement of the energy delivery device as it is moved along the passageway, such that at least one energy delivery parameter is automatically adjusted as the energy delivery device is moved along the passageway based on the real-time tracking.
“The method may further include the following steps either alone or in combination: maintaining contact between the energy emitting portion and the tissue while the energy delivery device is moved along the passageway, and the real-time tracking may include generating an image of the passageway and imposing a real-time location of the energy delivery device on the image; the real-time tracking may include tracking the energy delivery device with a locating system and at least one locating implement, such that the at least one locating implement may be attached to the energy delivery device; the at least one energy delivery parameter may include at least one of power, temperature, impedance, and time; the energy emitting portion may include a plurality of legs forming a basket-type shape, with at least one energy delivery parameter being varied along a length of at least one of the legs; the at least one energy delivery parameter may also be automatically adjusted in response to sensed characteristics of the tissue and/or passageway; transitioning the energy emitting portion from a first, collapsed configuration to a second, expanded configuration and maintaining the energy emitting portion in the second, expanded configuration as the energy delivery device is moved along the passageway; moving the energy delivery device (manually or automatically via motor, robot, or the like) along the passageway in a substantially continuous manner (e.g., without being stationary at any given treatment site).
“In addition, an energy delivery system for treating tissue defining a passageway in a body is disclosed. The energy delivery system may include an energy delivery device including an elongate member and an energy emitting portion at a distal portion of the elongate member, at least one energy generator connected to the energy delivery device, and a locating system configured to track the energy delivery device in real-time when the energy delivery device is within the passageway. The energy generator may be configured to deliver energy via the energy emitting portion to the passageway according to the real-time tracking of the energy delivery device, and the energy delivery system may be configured to automatically adjust at least one energy delivery parameter as the energy delivery device is moved along the passageway.
“The energy delivery system may further include the following features either alone or in combination: maintain contact between the energy delivery device and tissue while the energy delivery device is moved along the passageway; the locating system may be configured to track the energy delivery device in real-time via communication with a locating implement located on the energy delivery device; the locating implement may be located on one of the elongate member, the energy emitting portion, or a distal tip of the energy delivery device; the energy emitting portion may include a plurality of legs forming a basket-type shape; the energy delivery system may be configured to vary the at least one energy delivery parameter along a length of at least one of the plurality of legs; the at least one energy parameter may include at least one of temperature, impedance, time, and power; there may be a rendering system configured to generate an image of coordinates of the passageway; the energy delivery system may be configured to also automatically adjust the at least one energy delivery parameter in response to measured characteristics of the tissue and/or passageway; the energy emitting portion may be self-expanding; the energy emitting portion may be configured to transition from a first, collapsed configuration to a second, expanded configuration, and the energy emitting portion may be configured to be maintained in the second, expanded configuration as the energy delivery device is moved along the passageway.
“Additional objects and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the disclosure. The objects and advantages of the disclosure will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
“The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate several embodiments of the present disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
“FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a system for delivering energy to tissue within a cavity or passageway of a body.
“FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a distal portion of an energy delivery device, according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure.
“FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the system of FIG. 1 with an energy delivery device inserted into a cavity or passageway of a body.
“FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a virtual map showing the virtual position of an energy delivery device within a cavity or passageway of a body.”
For more information, see this patent application: Phan, Huy D.; Wizeman, William; Kaplan, Gary; Webster, Noah D. Medical Device Tracking and Energy Feedback. Filed May 15, 2013 and posted February 6, 2014. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1580&p=32&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20140130.PD.&OS=PD/20140130&RS=PD/20140130
Keywords for this news article include: Asthma, Treatment, Bronchial Diseases, Immune System Diseases, Biotechnology Companies, Obstructive Lung Diseases, Respiratory Tract Diseases, Respiratory Hypersensitivity, Boston Scientific Scimed Inc..
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