Patent ID: 8452383

Claim:
An endoscope device for providing guided thermotherapy, comprising: an endoscope tube comprising a hollow working channel; an optical catheter comprising an optical fiber located inside the hollow working channel to guide an optical probe beam and, an optical probe head, located at a distal end of the fiber, to reflect a first portion of the optical probe beam back to the fiber and to direct a section portion of the optical probe beam to a target tissue as an optical imaging beam, the optical probe head receiving light returned from the target tissue under illumination of the optical imaging beam to overlap the light returned from the target tissue with the first portion to co-propagate in the fiber away from the optical probe head; an optical delay device coupled to the fiber to receive the first portion and the light returned from the target tissue to produce a variable relative phase delay between the first portion and the light returned from the target tissue; an optical detector that detects the light of the first portion and the light returned from the target tissue from the optical delay device; a processing unit to receive output from the optical detector and to extract a temperature at a location illuminated by the optical imaging beam from information of the target carried by the light returned from the target tissue; an RF applicator engaged to the endo scope tubing and near the optical probe head to apply RF energy to the target tissue to raise a temperature at a location of the target where the RF energy is applied; and a control mechanism that controls an amount of the RF energy to be applied by the RF applicator to the target tissue based on the measured temperature, wherein the RF applicator includes a hollow tube that both conducts the RF energy for application of the RF energy to the target tissue and carries a cooling liquid or gas inside the hollow tube to cool a surface of the target to allow a temperature at a location underneath the surface to be higher than a temperature of the surface under application of the RF energy.