Patent Abstract:
The present invention relates to a rotating catheter tip for optical coherence tomography based on the use of an optical fiber that does not rotate, that is enclosed in a catheter, which has a tip rotates under the influence of a fluid drive system to redirect light from the fiber to a surrounding vessel and the light reflected or backscattered from the vessel back to the optical fiber.

Full Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    The present application is a continuation from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/911,541, filed Oct. 25, 2010, which is a continuation from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/551,684, filed Oct. 20, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,853,316, issued Dec. 14, 2010, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/728,481, filed Oct. 20, 2005, and which is a continuation-in-part “CIP” of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/548,982, which was filed Sep. 7, 2005 and granted a U.S. national stage filing date of May 2, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,711,413, issued May 4, 2010, which claims priority to PCT International Patent Application No. PCT/US2004/012773, filed Apr. 23, 2004 and which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/466,215, filed Apr. 28, 2003, all of which are herein expressly incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention relates to catheter probes based on the use of a fiber that does not rotate. More specifically, the present invention relates to optical coherence tomography based on the use of an optical fiber that does not rotate, which is enclosed in a catheter portion. 
         [0003]    Myocardial infarction or heart attack remains the leading cause of death in our society. Unfortunately, most of us can identify a family member or close friend that has suffered from a myocardial infarction. Until recently many investigators believed that coronary arteries critically blocked with atherosclerotic plaque that subsequently progressed to total occlusion was the primary mechanism for myocardial infarction. Recent evidence from many investigational studies, however, clearly indicates that most infarctions are due to sudden rupture of non-critically stenosed coronary arteries due to sudden plaque rupture. For example, Little et al. (Little, W C, Downes, T R, Applegate, R J. The underlying coronary lesion in myocardial infarction: implications for coronary angiography.  Clin Cardiol  1991, 14: 868-874, incorporated by reference herein) observed that approximately 70% of patients suffering from an acute plaque rupture were initiated on plaques that were less than 50% occluded as revealed by previous coronary angiography. This and similar observations have been confirmed by other investigators (Nissen, S. Coronary angiography and intravascular ultrasound.  Am J Cardiol  2001, 87 (suppl): 15A -20 A, incorporated by reference herein). 
         [0004]    The development of technologies to identify these unstable plaques holds the potential to decrease substantially the incidence of acute coronary syndromes that often lead to premature death. Unfortunately, no methods are currently available to the cardiologist that may be applied to specify which coronary plaques are vulnerable and thus prone to rupture. Although treadmill testing has been used for decades to identify patients at greater cardiovascular risk, this approach does not have the specificity to differentiate between stable and vulnerable plaques that are prone to rupture and frequently result in myocardial infarction. Inasmuch as a great deal of information exists regarding the pathology of unstable plaques (determined at autopsy) technologies based upon identifying the well described pathologic appearance of the vulnerable plaque offers a promising long term strategy to solve this problem. 
         [0005]    The unstable plaque was first identified and characterized by pathologists in the early 1980&#39;s. Davis and coworkers noted that with the reconstruction of serial histological sections in patients with acute myocardial infarctions associated with death, a rupture or fissuring of athermanous plaque was evident (Davis M J, Thomas A C. Plaque fissuring: the cause of acute myocardial infarction, sudden death, and crescendo angina.  Br Heart J  1985; 53: 3 63-37 3, incorporated by reference herein). Ulcerated plaques were further characterized as having a thin fibrous cap, increased macrophages with decreased smooth muscle cells and an increased lipid core when compared to non-ulcerated atherosclerotic plaques in human aortas (Davis M J, Richardson E D, Woolf N. Katz O R, Mann J. Risk of thrombosis in human atherosclerotic plaques: role of extracellular lipid, macrophage, and smooth muscle cell content, incorporated by reference herein). Furthermore, no correlation in size of lipid pool and percent stenosis was observed when imaging by coronary angiography. In fact, most cardiologists agree that unstable plaques progress to more stenotic yet stable plaques through progression via rupture with the formation of a mural thrombus and plaque remodeling, but without complete luminal occlusion (Topol E J, Rabbaic R. Strategies to achieve coronary arterial plaque stabilization.  Cardiovasc Res  1999; 41: 402-417, incorporated by reference herein). Neovascularization with intra-plaque hemorrhage may also play a role in this progression from small lesions, i.e., those less than about 50% occluded, to larger significant plaques. Yet, if the unique features of unstable plaque could be recognized by the cardiologist and then stabilized, a dramatic decrease may be realized in both acute myocardial infarction and unstable angina syndromes, and in the sudden progression of coronary artery disease. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    The present invention uses depth-resolved light reflection or Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) to identify the pathological features that have been identifie3d in the vulnerable plaque. In OCT, light from a broad band light source or tunable laser source is split by an optical fiber splitter with one fiber directing light to the vessel wall and the other fiber directing light to a moving reference mirror. The distal end of the optical fiber is interfaced with a catheter for interrogation of the coronary artery during a heart catheterization procedure. The reflected light from the plaque is recombined with the signal from the reference mirror forming interference fringes (measured by an photovoltaic detector) allowing precise depth-resolved imaging of the plaque on a micron scale. 
         [0007]    OCT uses a superluminescent diode source or tunable laser source emitting a 1300 nm wave length, with a 50-250 nm band width (distribution of wave length) to make in situ tomographic images with axial resolution of 2-20 μm and tissue penetration of 2-3 mm. OCT has the potential to image tissues at the level of a single cell. In fact, the inventors have recently utilized broader band width optical sources so that axial resolution is improved to 4 um or less. With such resolution, OCT can be applied to visualize intimal caps, their thickness, and details of structure including fissures, the size and extent of the underlying lipid pool and the presence of inflammatory cells. Moreover, near infrared light sources used in OCT instrumentation can penetrate into heavily calcified tissue regions characteristic of advanced coronary artery disease. With cellular resolution, application of OCT may be used to identify other details of the vulnerable plaque such as infiltration of monocytes and macrophages. In short, application of OCT can provide detailed images of a pathologic specimen without cutting or disturbing the tissue. 
         [0008]    One concern regarding application of this technology to image atherosclerotic plaques within the arterial lumen is the strong scattering of light due to the presence of red blood cells. Once a catheter system is positioned in a coronary artery, the blood flow between the OCT optical fiber and artery can obscure light penetration into the vessel wall. One proposed solution is the use of saline flushes. Saline use is limited in duration, however, since myocardial ischemia eventually occurs in the distal myocardium. The inventors have proposed the use of artificial blood substitutes in the place of saline. Artificial hemoglobin or artificial blood including hemoglobin is non-particulate and therefore does not scatter light. Moreover, artificial hemoglobin is about to be approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration as a blood substitute and can carry oxygen necessary to prevent myocardial ischemia. Recently, the inventors demonstrated the viability of using artificial hemoglobin to reduce light scattering by blood in mouse myocardium coronary arteries (Villard J W, Feldman M D, Kim Jeehyun, Milner T O, and Freeman G L. Use of a blood substitute to determine instantaneous murine right ventricular thickening with optical coherence tomography.  Circulation  2002, Volume 105: Pages 1843-1849, incorporated by reference herein). 
         [0009]    An OCT catheter to image coronary plaques has been built and is currently being tested by investigators. (Jang I K, Bouma B E, Hang O H, et al. Visualization of coronary atherosclerotic plaques in patients using optical coherence tomography: comparison with intravascular ultrasound.  JACC  2002; 3 9: 604-609, incorporated by reference herein). The prototype catheter consists of a single light source and is able to image over a 360 degree arc of a coronary arterial lumen by rotating a shaft that spins the optical fiber. Because the rotating shaft is housed outside of the body, the spinning rod in the catheter must rotate with uniform angular velocity so that the light can be focused for equal intervals of time on each angular segment of the coronary artery. Mechanical drag in the rotating shaft can produce significant distortion and artifacts in recorded OCT images of the coronary artery. Unfortunately, because the catheter will always be forced to make several bends between the entry point in the femoral artery to the coronary artery (e.g., the 180 degree turn around the aortic arch), uneven mechanical drag will result in OCT image artifacts As the application of OCT is shifted from imaging gross anatomical structures of the coronary artery to its capability to image at the level of a single cell, non-uniform rotation of the single fiber OCT prototype will become an increasingly problematic source of distortion and image artifact. 
         [0010]    Essentially, current endoscope type single channel OCT systems suffer by non-constant rotating speed that forms irregular images of a vessel target. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,003, incorporated by reference herein. The approach of a rotary shaft to spin a single mode fiber is prone to produce artifacts. The catheter will always be forced to make several bends from its entry in the femoral artery, to the 180 degree turn around the aortic arch, to its final destination in the coronary artery. All these bends will cause uneven friction on the rotary shaft, and uneven time distribution of the light on the entire 360 degree arch of the coronary artery. As the application of OCT is shifted from gross anatomical structures of the coronary artery to its capability to image at higher resolutions (i.e., the level of a single cell), then non-uniform rotation of the single fiber OCT will become a greater source of artifact. 
         [0011]    The present invention overcomes this disadvantage of current single mode endoscope OCT by putting a rotating part at the end of the fiber probe. The rotating part is driven by biocompatible gas or liquid pumped externally. The rotating part is based on a miniature turbine, screw or water wheel, or nanotechnology. The single mode fiber itself remains stationary, but only a prism reflecting incident light to the target vessel wall will rotate at constant speed. 
         [0012]    The present invention pertains to a catheter imaging probe for a patient. The probe comprises a conduit through which energy is transmitted. The probe comprises a first portion through which the conduit extends. The probe comprises a second portion which rotates relative to the conduit to redirect the energy from the conduit. 
         [0013]    The present invention also pertains to a rotating tip assembly suitable for use with the inventive catheter imaging probe. The rotating tip assembly comprises generally an axle having a plurality of turbine-like members projecting generally radially outward from a central longitudinal axis of the axle, the axle further having a central longitudinal bore extending along the entire longitudinal axis of the axle. A distal end of the axle is beveled at an angle suitable to permit the reflection or refraction of optical energy at a predetermined angle away from the central longitudinal axis of the axle, then to gather light reflected back from the environment surrounding the catheter tip and transmit the same to the optical fiber. An outer housing having optically transparent properties is provided and is mounted on a distal end of a catheter body. A catheter end cap having a central longitudinal bore and a plurality of fluid flow ports passing through the catheter end cap and oriented co-axial with the longitudinal axis of the catheter end cap and the catheter body is provided. The catheter end cap is affixed within a distal end of the central longitudinal bore in the catheter body, and axle having the plurality of turbine-like members is concentrically and co-axially engaged within the central longitudinal bore of the catheter end cap and is rotatable therein. A second cap is provided which comprises generally concentrically aligned annular members, a first inner annular member defining a central longitudinal bore of the second cap and being in concentric spaced-apart relationship with a second outer cylindrical member so as to define an annular opening there between. The annular opening is maintained by spacer or rib members. The second outer cylindrical member has a plurality of fluid flow ports passing through a distal end surface thereof. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0014]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the rotating tip assembly of the present invention depicting fluid flows there through and optical inputs. 
           [0015]      FIG. 2  is a perspective view of a first embodiment of a turbine member in accordance with the present invention. 
           [0016]      FIG. 3  is a perspective cut-away view of the rotating tip assembly of the present invention. 
           [0017]      FIG. 4A  is an end elevational view of a housing cap for the rotating tip assembly of the present invention. 
           [0018]      FIG. 4B  is a perspective end view of the housing cap for the rotating tip assembly of the present invention. 
           [0019]      FIG. 5A  is a side end elevational view of the cap member for the rotating tip assembly of the present invention. 
           [0020]      FIG. 5B  is a perspective view of the cap member for the rotating tip assembly of the present invention 
           [0021]      FIG. 6  is an end elevational view of an alternative embodiment of the housing cap in accordance with the present invention. 
           [0022]      FIG. 7  is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of the turbine member in accordance with the present invention. 
           [0023]      FIG. 8  is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of the second cap member in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0024]      FIG. 9  is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of the rotating tip assembly in accordance with the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0025]    In the accompanying figures, like elements are identified by like reference numerals among the several preferred embodiments of the present invention. A rotating catheter tip assembly  10  comprises a housing  12  and a turbine  16 , as shown in  FIG. 1 . The housing  12  includes a conduit  27  that extends through the housing  12  and turbine  16 , whereby the turbine  16  rotates relative to the conduit  27  to redirect energy from the conduit  27 . Preferably, conduit  27  is a radiation waveguide, and more preferably the radiation waveguide is an optical fiber. The rotating catheter tip assembly  10  rotates a reflecting material  17 , which then reflects energy emanating from the conduit  27 . The reflecting material  17  is coupled with a focusing element  19  to focus the energy from conduit  27  to a target. For purposes of this detailed description, it will be understood that light is redirected from an optical fiber and reflected light from a given in vivo target is then gathered and redirected back to the optical fiber through the focusing element  19 . The focusing element  19  may be any type of lens, GRIN lens, and the like suitable to focus optical energy. The focusing element  19  can be attached to the conduit, as to not rotate and alternatively, there is a space in between the focusing element  19  and the conduit  27 , whereby the focusing element  19  is attached to turbine  16  as to rotate thereby. 
         [0026]    The turbine  16  includes a center axle  22  and a plurality of vane members  18 , as shown in  FIG. 2 . The center axle  22  includes a central longitudinal bore  26 , through which the conduit  27  extends. The center axle  22  includes a window opening  24  at the distal end, through which reflecting material  17  reflects energy emanating from the conduit  27 . The vane members  18  project radially outward from center axle  22  and provide a rotating torque to the center axle  22  when a flowing fluid (gas or liquid) flows against the vane members  16 , thereby causing the center axle  22  to rotate about the conduit  27 . Preferably, the vane members  16  can have a predetermined curvature along the longitudinal axis of the turbine  16 . The vane members  16  can be spiral shaped, or in any other configuration which permits rotation of the turbine  16 . Preferably, the turbine  16  is made from stainless steel, plastic tygon or Teflon. Alternatively, the turbine  16  includes knobs to support the axle  22  and allows the axle  22  to rotate without wobbling. 
         [0027]    The housing  12  includes a cylinder  32 , a housing cap  14 , and a cap member  20 , as shown in  FIG. 3 . The cylinder  32  includes a central chamber  33 , a distal opening  29 , and outlet channels  30 . The central chamber  33  houses the turbine member  16  and includes an inflow and an outflow, which define a fluid flow pathway  48 . The inflow runs along the turbine member  16 , while the outflow runs along the outlet channels  30 . The housing cap  14  includes a plurality of fluid inlet ports  42 , a plurality of fluid outlet ports  44 , and a central opening  40 , as shown in  FIGS. 4   a  and  4   b . The fluid inlet ports  42  attach to fluid inlet tubes  41 , as shown in  FIG. 1 . The fluid inlet tubes  41  are connected to a fluid source (not shown). The fluid inlet ports  42  pass through a generally central portion of the housing cap  14 , to transmit fluid to central chamber  33 . The fluid inlet ports  42  generally align with turbine member  16 . The fluid outlet ports  44  pass through a relatively peripheral portion of the housing  14  and align with the outlet channels  30  and outlet tubes  43 , as shown in  FIG. 1 . The central opening  40  includes a concentric recessed seat  39 , as shown in  FIG. 4 , in which the axle  22  sits and substantially rotates thereabout. Concentric recessed seat  39  is formed to permit the axle  22  to rotate without wobbling. The central opening  40  co-axially aligns with longitudinal bore  26  and permits conduit  27  to be passed there through, whereby the turbine member  16  is freely rotatable without rotate conduit  27 . The axle  22  is co-axially aligned to an opening  29  at a distal end of the housing  12  and opening  29  permits axle to rotate about an axis. Preferably the housing  12  is made from Teflon. Alternatively, the housing  12  includes a cover transparent to the energy and which encapsulates the turbine  16 , so that no fluid can escape from the housing except through the channels  30 . Preferably, the transparent cover is made from any biocompatible transparent plastic. Such plastic can include Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) or the like. 
         [0028]    The cap member  20  includes an inner annular member  28 , an outer annular member  27 , a plurality of spacer rib members  34 , and a plurality of spaces  35 , as shown in  FIGS. 5   a  and  5   b . The cap member  20  is concentrically mounted onto the distal end of the axle  22  through inner annular member  28 , as shown in  FIG. 5   b . The inner annular member  28  permits axle  22  to freely rotate thereabout, without wobbling. The inner annular member  28  and outer annular member  27  are connected by spacer rib members  34  and are concentrically spaced apart. The spaces  35  between adjacent pairs of spacer rib members  34  provide outflow pathways for the fluid flow  48  to pass from the central chamber  33  to the distal end of housing  12  and then to outlet channels  30 . A plurality of fluid flow ports (not shown) may be provided in a distal surface of the cap member  20  and define a distal end of spaces  35  to channel fluid flow out of spaces  35 . 
         [0029]    At the distal end of the axle  22 , a reflecting material  17  (not shown) is attached to the center axle  22  at window  24 , as shown in  FIG. 1 . The reflecting material redirects energy from the conduit  27 . The reflecting material preferably includes a prism or a mirror, which reflects energy from the conduit, the prism rotating with the center axle  22 . In one embodiment the energy is radiant energy. Preferably, a lens focuses energy onto the patient. The lens can be a microlens, GRIN lens, or optical fiber lines. The probe preferably includes a fluid source connected to the inlet tube. 
         [0030]    The fluid is provided to the inlet tubes  41 , as shown in  FIG. 1 . The fluid is provided by a fluid source (not shown). Preferably, the fluid source is a pump. The pump can be any standard fluid pump, as known and recognized by those skilled in the art. Preferably, the fluid is chosen from a group consisting of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, helium, saline, water, d5W or artificial blood such as Oxyglobin. Alternatively, any gas that can be dissolved into blood or tissue relatively easily can be used. Accordingly, a gas pump would used to provide fluid to the inlet tubes  41 . 
         [0031]    The preferred dimensions of the outer diameter of the housing  12  is 2 mm, the outer diameter of the turbine  16  is 1.4 mm, the outer diameter of the inlet tube  42  is 0.2 mm, the outer diameter of the outlet tube  44  is 0.2 mm. The speed can be 30 rotations per second. The turbine pitch can be 4 pitch/mm, while the speed of the gas flow can be 120 mm/sec and target flow rate is 3 mm 3 /sec. The above are all examples. The invention is not limited to these values. For instance, to obtain a finer image, the flow rate is lower and the time it takes to obtain an image is then longer. 
         [0032]    Alternatively, the turbine  16  includes wart to reflect energy coming through a radiation energy guide back to the radiation energy guide. The reflective wart can be any reflective material on the axle  22 . Preferably, the wart is block shape with a flat wall shape. The wart rotates with the turbine and the energy reflected by the wart indicates current angular position of the prism. The wart identifies one angular position of the rotating portion when the light hits and gets back form the wart. The wart may be a flat wall facing the radiation energy guide to reflect back. The wart can be molded into the axle, and flat wall can have a reflective material, such as a mirror placed on it to increase the reflection. The width of the wart is small compared to the circumference of axle  22 , so as to identify a given point, and is high enough to block the energy emitted from optical fiber, so it is reflected by wart. 
         [0033]    In operation, the assembly may be connected to a sample arm of a single mode fiber OCT. In the center of an OCT probe, the turbine  16  is connected to a prism. Gas or liquid flows through the inlet port  42  into the turbine chamber  32 . The turbine  16  is supported by positioning between the housing cap  14  and cap member  20  to maintain constant position during rotation. At the center of the turbine  16 , the central longitudinal bore  26  includes an optical fiber. During rotation of the turbine  16 , the optical fiber remains stationary. In spectral domain phase sensitive OCT, the reference reflecting surface is within the catheter. 
         [0034]    A probing light will be launched from the single mode optical fiber through a lens having a curvature to focus the light onto target tissue area. A rotating prism connected to the turbine reflects incoming light toward target tissue area on the vessel wall, enabling the imaging system to scan 360 degrees around an inner vessel wall at a constant speed. The reflected light from the target tissue returns to the fiber through the prism. A standard analysis of the light is then performed to obtain the image, as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,003, incorporated by reference herein. Gas or liquid gone through the turbine  16  exits the probe through an outlet tube  44 . The rotation direction and speed of the turbine are controlled by the pressure difference between inlet ports  42  and outlet ports  44 . Applying a gas or liquid through an inlet tube pressure is induced to the turbine which rotates; therefore, a prism put on the end of the turbine rotates as well. Finally, an imaging system can scan 360 degrees around the inner vessel wall at a constant speed. 
         [0035]      FIG. 6  depicts an alternative embodiment of a housing cap  14 , synonymously termed a catheter cap  14 , which is mountable on a distal open end of a catheter body (not shown) such that central flange  41  seats against the distal end of the catheter body (not shown). The fluid inlet openings  42  and fluid outlet openings  44  consist of channels which permit fluid flow to pass through the catheter cap  14  in the manner discussed above. Central opening  40  again accommodates passage of the optical fiber  27  therethrough and is co-axially aligned with the central bore of  26  of the turbine member  16  as depicted in  FIG. 7 . The proximal and distal ends of the catheter cap  14  projects from the central flange  41  and are preferably mirror images of one another about the central flange  41 . 
         [0036]    An alternative embodiment of the turbine member  16  is illustrated in  FIG. 7 . The principal difference between the first embodiment of the turbine member illustrated in  FIGS. 1-5  is that there is a space in between the focusing element  19  and the conduit  27 . The space may be an air space or an optical gap providing for the optical energy permission to expand before being focused by the focusing element. In this embodiment, the focusing element  19  and the reflecting material  17  both rotate about the axis by the axle  22 , by being substantially connected to the axle by optical glue, or the like. Also, the curved or helical pitch of the turbine vanes  18  is greater than that depicted in  FIGS. 1-5 , such that they subtend approximately a 90 degree arc about the circumference of the axle  22 . 
         [0037]    A second embodiment of a cap member  20  is depicted in  FIG. 8 , and is synonymously termed second cap member  60 . The second cap member  60  includes a central opening  64 , a collection channel  65  and a plurality of outflow ports  66 . The central opening  64  is concentrically mounted onto the distal end of the axle  22  to permit axle  22  to rotate freely thereabout. The collection channel  65  is connected to the outflow ports  66 , to permit the outflow of fluid. The outflow ports are substantially aligned with the outflow ports  66  of the catheter cap  14 , to allow the outflow to return to the fluid source (not shown). Second cap member  60  is similar to second cap member  60 , in that it has an inner annular member  64  through which the axle  22  of turbine member, and an outer annular member  62  which is in concentrically spaced apart relationship therewith 16 passes except that after fluid flows through the spaces  35  it enters a return path by passing through outlet flow ports  66  which are provided about a peripheral portion of a distal surface of the second cap member  60  and enter the fluid outlet channels  30  in the housing  12 . 
         [0038]      FIG. 9  demonstrates the complete assembly  100  of the catheter cap  14 , second cap member  60 , with turbine member  16  therebetween. 
         [0039]    The present invention also pertains to a method for imaging a patient. The method comprises the steps of inserting a catheter into a patient, rotating a turbine  16  of the catheter relative to a conduit  27 , extending through the turbine  16  of the catheter, redirecting energy transmitted through the conduit  27  to the patient and receiving the energy reflected or backscattered to the turbine, and redirecting reflected energy to the conduit  27 . 
         [0040]    Preferably, the rotating step includes flowing fluid through an inlet tube  41  to the turbine  16  to turn an axle  22  of the turbine  16 . 
         [0041]    Preferably, the flowing step includes flowing the fluid against a plurality of vane members  18  which extend from a rotating center axle  22  of the turbine  16  to create a rotating torque on the center axle  22  to rotate about the conduit  27  that extends through the center axle  22 . The axle  22  preferably has reflecting material  17  attached to the distal end of the axle  22 , which redirects the energy from the conduit  27 . Preferably, the conduit  27  is an optical fiber. 
         [0042]    The reflecting material  17  preferably includes a prism or mirror which reflects light from the conduit, and includes rotating the prism with the axle as the axle is rotated by the flowing fluid. Preferably, the rotating step includes the step of rotating the center axle  22  that is supported by knobs of the cylinder of the turbine in which the center axle  22  is disposed. Preferably, flowing the fluid from the inlet tube  41  through a chamber  33  and removing the fluid flowing from the housing  12  through at least one outlet tube  43 . 
         [0043]    In the foregoing described embodiment of the invention, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand and appreciate that an assembly is described which provides a fluid drive mechanism for rotating a mirror about the central longitudinal axis of the assembly while transmitting optical energy from a co-axial optical fiber which is maintained stationary within the central axis of the assembly, such that light energy may be reflected or refracted perpendicular to the central longitudinal axis of the catheter and traverse a 360 degree arc. 
         [0044]    Although the invention has been described in detail in the foregoing embodiments for the purpose of illustration, it is to be understood that such detail is solely for that purpose and that variations can be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention except as it may be described by the following claims.

Technology Classification (CPC): 0