Granted Patent B2

US 12,564,340 · App. 17/863,211 · Granted Mar 3, 2026

Inventors: Steffan Sowards (Salt Lake City, UT); Anthony K. Misener (Bountiful, UT); William Robert McLaughlin (Bountiful, UT)

Assignee: Bard Access Systems, Inc.

A61B5/1459A61B1/00009A61B1/00013A61B1/00045A61B1/00055A61B1/00057A61B1/0661A61B1/07A61B1/126A61B1/3137A61B5/02055A61B5/0261A61B5/14539A61B5/14552A61B5/6852A61B2034/2061A61B2562/0271

Abstract

Claims (32)

1 . A medical system, comprising:

an elongate medical device configured for insertion within a blood vessel of a patient, the elongate medical device comprising:

an optical fiber extending along a longitudinal length of the elongate medical device to a distal end of the elongate medical device, the optical fiber having a single core fiber extending along the optical fiber, the single core fiber disposed radially offset from a central axis of the optical fiber, the single core fiber including a plurality of sensors distributed along the longitudinal length, each sensor of the plurality of sensors configured to (i) reflect a light signal of a different spectral width based on received incident light, and (ii) change a characteristic of the reflected light signal based on a state of the optical fiber; and

a console including:

a light source optically coupled with the optical fiber via an optical connector;

an optical receiver optically coupled with the optical fiber via the optical connector;

a display;

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon logic that, when executed by the processor, causes operations including:

projecting via the light source a light distally along the optical fiber;

receiving via the optical receiver the reflected light signal from the plurality of sensors;

processing the reflected light signal by the processor to determine the state of the optical fiber based on the reflected light signal; and

communicating the state to a user via the display, wherein the state includes a temperature.

2 . The medical system of claim 1 , wherein:

the light includes an illuminating light that is propagated distally along the optical fiber and projected distally away from a distal end of the optical fiber, and the operations further include:

projecting via the light source the illuminating light distally along the optical fiber, wherein the illuminating light is projected distally away from a distal of the optical fiber;

receiving via the optical receiver an image light signal that is received at the distal end and propagated proximally along the optical fiber from the distal end, the image light signal pertaining to an anatomical element of the patient;

processing the image light signal to extract image data from the image light signal; and

processing the image data to render the image data in a form of an image of the anatomical element on the display.

3 . The medical system of claim 1 , wherein the elongate medical device includes a catheter, a stylet, a probe, or a guidewire.

4 . The medical system of claim 1 , wherein:

the state of the optical fiber includes a fluctuating movement of at least a distal portion of the optical fiber, and

the operations further include:

processing the reflected light signal to extract present fluctuating movement data from the reflected light signal;

comparing the present fluctuating movement data with one or more fluctuating movement limits stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium, the one or more fluctuating movement limits pertaining to movement of the distal portion in response to oscillating anatomic motion adjacent a cavoatrial junction of the patient; and

determining, as result of the comparing, that the distal end of the optical fiber is disposed adjacent the cavoatrial junction.

5 . The medical system of claim 4 , wherein:

the state of the optical fiber further includes the temperature of an inserted portion of the optical fiber, and

the operations further include:

receiving by the optical receiver one or more reflected light signals from a subset of the plurality of sensors, the subset disposed along the inserted portion;

processing the one or more reflected light signals to extract present temperature data from the one or more reflected light signals; and

processing the present temperature data to determine a length of the inserted portion based on the present temperature data.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (400)