Patent ID: 9161735
Filing Date: 2015-10-20
Classification: A61B,A61K,A61M,A61N,A61P

Abstract:
1. A method for conducting a medical procedure on intervertebral discs of a spine in a body of a discogenic back pain patient, comprising: providing a substantially targeted agent that is adapted to differentially bind to a pain factor; conjugating the targeted agent with an imaging contrast label to thereby form a targeted label configured to label the pain factor via the bound pain factor-label conjugate; locally injecting into a first disc, using a local injection assembly, the targeted label in a manner that is adapted to differentially bind to and label the pain factor in a first region of tissue at a first location in the first disc; locally injecting into a second disc, using a local injection assembly, the targeted label in a manner that is adapted to differentially bind to and label the pain factor in a second region of tissue at a second location in the second disc; binding the pain factor at the first and second locations with the injected targeted label, thereby artificially labeling the pain factor with the targeted label at the first and second locations in a manner substantially increasing the ability to image the pain factor with an imaging tool; imaging the first and second discs with the imaging tool in a manner sufficient to selectively differentiate a first concentration of the labeled pain factor in the first region of tissue at the first location relative to a second concentration of the labeled pain factor in the second region of tissue at the second location; wherein imaging the labeled pain factor comprises using the imaging tool to image the label coupled to the pain factor via the bound targeted agent, and the first and second concentrations are a function of the amounts of the label at the first and second locations; wherein the pain factor comprises a nerve factor; wherein the nerve factor comprises receptor tyrosine kinase A (trkA); wherein the targeted agent comprises a trkA binding agent or antibody; and diagnosing the first and second locations as relatively painful versus non-painful by comparing the selectively differentiated first and second concentrations.