Patent ID: 8467858

Claim:
A device for thermotherapy, comprising: a catheter including a working channel configured for insertion into a passage of a body to reach a target tissue inside the body; an optical imaging module comprising (1) an imaging optic fiber having a portion inserted into the working channel, wherein the imaging optic fiber is structured to support light in a first propagation mode and a second, different propagation mode, (2) an optical probe head coupled to an end of the imaging optic fiber and located inside the working channel, (3) a light source to produce probe light, wherein the imaging optic fiber receives and guides the probe light in the first propagation mode, wherein the optical probe head is coupled to the imaging optic fiber to receive the light from the imaging optic fiber and to reflect a first portion of the light back to the imaging optic fiber in the first propagation mode and direct a second portion of the light to a target location of the target tissue, the probe head collecting reflection of the second portion from the target location and exporting to the imaging optic fiber the reflection as a reflected second portion in the second propagation mode, (4) an optical differential delay unit to produce and control a relative delay between the reflected first portion and the reflected second portion received from the imaging optic fiber in response to a control signal, (5) a detection module to receive the reflected first portion and the reflected second portion from the imaging optic fiber and to extract information of the target tissue carried by the reflected second portion, and 6) an imaging control unit, which produces the control signal to the optical differential delay unit, to set the relative delay at two different bias values to select a layer of material inside the target tissue to measure an optical absorption of the selected layer; a thermotherapy module having a power delivery waveguide having a portion inserted into the working channel to deliver thermal energy to the target tissue; a control unit that controls the optical imaging module to extract the imaging information from the collected reflected light, to obtain a spatial distribution of diseased locations of the target tissue, and to obtain a temperature map of the target tissue for thermotherapy based on the spatial distribution of the diseased locations of the target tissue, the control unit controlling the thermotherapy module to control a location and an amount of thermal energy delivery to each of the diseased locations based on the temperature map to perform thermotherapy.