Patent ID: 7650183

Claim:
A system for monitoring mucosal damage in hollow viscous organs comprising: a. a catheter suitable for insertion into a hollow viscous organ and having a plurality of spaced apart annular electrodes positioned proximate a first end of the catheter, said electrodes being respectively electrically connected to a plurality of electrical leads extending through the catheter from the electrodes towards a second end of the catheter and terminating at a connector; b. an impedance spectrometer electrically connected to the electrodes in the catheter by way of the connector, said impedance spectrometer being configured to electrically drive the electrodes, once the catheter is inserted into the hollow viscous organ, to obtain a complex impedance spectrum of mucosa lining the hollow viscous organ; and c. a signal processing device connected to the impedance spectrometer and configured to process the complex impedance spectrum for a determination of the extent to which the mucosa is damaged, and further configured to generate a reference point on an experimentally-validated damage index scale, as a measure of the extent to which the mucosa is damaged, based upon the processed complex impedance spectrum.