Patent ID: 7837677

Claim:
A catheter for use in treating a length of a blood vessel together with an introducer sheath having a reference location configured to be located outside the patient, the catheter comprising: an elongated shaft having a distal section and a proximal section, the shaft being sized for insertion into a blood vessel; a resistive heating coil; wherein the resistive heating coil has a distal and a proximal end and is configured to apply energy along a length of the blood vessel in consecutive treated segments of the blood vessel to thereby occlude the length of the blood vessel; the heating coil located adjacent the distal section of the shaft, and having a coil length from about 2 centimeters to about 10 centimeters; a plurality of index markings marked on the shaft of the catheter; wherein the index markings are configured to be sequentially indexed in a distal to proximal direction adjacent the introducer reference location via movement of the elongate shaft in the distal to proximal direction to sequentially position the resistive heating coil axially along the length of the blood vessel; at least one final marking that indicates a final shaft distance from said final marking to the proximal end of the coil, the final shaft distance comprising approximately the length of the introducer sheath and a safety zone distance on the shaft; wherein consecutive index markings are spaced apart by an index marking length, the index marking length being from about 0.1 centimeter to about 1.5 centimeters less than the coil length to ensure overlap of consecutive treated segments of the blood vessel as the resistive coil is moved via movement of the elongated shaft in the distal to proximal direction along the blood vessel by successive index marking lengths; wherein between consecutive index markings, the shaft lacks any markings similar to the index markings; and a warning section along the shaft comprising a distinct marking different from the plurality of index markings and different from the at least one final marking, the at least one final marking located on the shaft between the heating coil and the warning section.