Patent ID: 6850804
Filing Date: 2005-02-01
Classification: A61B,A61F,A61N,G01K

Abstract:
1. A method for thermally treating a target tissue volume within the body of a patient comprising the steps of: (a) determining temperature value and treatment interval therapy data for carrying out said treatment of said target tissue volume; (b) providing an untethered implant with a ferrite component formulated with oxides of Fe, Mn and Zn to exhibit a Curie point temperature corresponding with said temperature value and exhibiting a permeability attribute at temperatures below said Curie point temperature; (c) providing an alternating current field based heating assembly having an on-state and an off-state and controllable for the generation of heat at said target tissue volume from an application component located externally of said body; (d) providing a detector assembly having a magnetometer-based pick-up component positionable externally of said body and, when enabled, having a first detector output in the presence of magnetic flux lines of a magnetic field encountering said implant when exhibiting said permeability attribute and a second detector output in the absence of said permeability attribute; (e) locating said untethered implant at an intra-body location effective for response to temperatures at the location of said target tissue; (f) positioning said detector assembly pick-up at a location externally of said body effective for monitoring magnetic flux lines of said magnetic field encountering said implant; (g) monitoring said detector assembly for the presence of said first and second detector outputs; (h) controlling said heating assembly to have said on-state in response to said first detector output and to have said off-state in response to said second detector output; and (i) controlling said heating assembly to terminate said generation of heat at said target tissue at the expiration of said determined treatment interval.