Patent ID: 9277865
Filing Date: 2016-03-08
CPC Classification: A61B,A61N

Claim Text:
1. An estimating apparatus for therapy for atrial fibrillation, for irradiating a cardiac-muscle tissue having absorbed photo-sensitive pharmaceutical, the photo-sensitive pharmaceutical absorbing an excitation light and emitting fluorescence, with the excitation light emitted from a tip portion of a laser catheter, comprising: a connector which the laser catheter is capable of being attached to and detached from; a light source for outputting the excitation light to the laser catheter via the connector; a detection unit for detecting fluorescence, the fluorescence entering the detection unit from the laser catheter via the connector, to estimate whether the cardiac-muscle tissue is changed because of reaction between the excitation light emitted from the tip portion of the laser catheter and the photo-sensitive pharmaceutical absorbed in the cardiac-muscle tissue, and whether a contact state of the tip portion of the laser catheter with respect to the cardiac-muscle tissue has changed; and a controller for simultaneously estimating whether the cardiac-muscle tissue has changed because of the reaction between the excitation light emitted from the tip portion of the laser catheter and the photosensitive pharmaceutical absorbed in the cardiac-muscle tissue, and the contact state of the tip portion of the laser catheter with respect to the cardiac-muscle tissue, the controller calculating fluorescence intensity and determining the non-contact state if the controller determines that the fluorescence intensity is equal to or larger than a first threshold; determining the upright-contact state if the controller determines that the minimum value of the fluorescence intensity is equal to or smaller than a second threshold, which is smaller than the first threshold; determining the slanting-contact state if the controller determines that the fluorescence intensity periodically fluctuates between the first threshold and the second threshold; determining whether the fluorescence intensity is attenuated below a threshold; and estimating that there is a cytocidal effect on a tissue irradiated with the excitation light if the controller determines that the fluorescence intensity is attenuated below the threshold.