Patent ID: 7214223

Claim:
Apparatus for use in treating an atherosclerotic target region of a coronary vessel in a patient, comprising a guidewire for accessing the target region intraluminally, a catheter having (i) a proximal main-body sleeve associated with a handle, (ii) a flexible, non-inflatable, translucent distal-end sleeve joined to the main-body sleeve at a catheter juncture, and (iii) an inner lumen extending through the two sleeves, through which lumen the catheter can be advanced over the guidewire to position the catheter's distal-end sleeve within the target region, a fiber-optic bundle having a light-diffusing tip, said bundle being adapted for introduction into and slidably associated with the catheter lumen after the catheter's distal-end sleeve is positioned within the target region, and the guidewire is removed; a proximal-end catheter port through which a light-transmissive fluid can be injected through the catheter into the catheter's distal-end sleeve, and a proximal-end optical connector to which the fiber-optic bundle can be connected to a laser source, for irradiating the atherosclerotic target region by passing a laser light beam through the fiber optic bundle, such that the laser beam is distributed along the catheter's distal-end sleeve, for transmission through the sleeve, by light scattering produced by (i) the light-diffusing tip, (ii) the light-transmissive fluid injected into the catheter's distal-end sleeve and (iii) the distal-end sleeve, and where the scattered light transmitted through the sleeve is effective to photoactivate a photoatherolytic compound contained in the target region; and wherein the handle comprises a first syringe containing a light-transmissive fluid and a second syringe containing a contrast fluid; wherein the handle further comprises first and second indicator lights configured to indicate the flow of the light-transmissive fluid and the contrast fluid; wherein the catheter further comprises a sensor, and wherein the sensor is configured to activate the first and second indicator lights.