Patent ID: 7899224

Claim:
A vascular-tissue-characterization system, comprising a computing device comprising: a database adapted to store a first set of parameters corresponding to a plurality of vascular tissue types; and a characterization application electrically connected to said database and adapted to: receive an intra-vascular ultrasound (IVUS) signal, said IVUS signal representing backscattered data from vascular tissue; transform said IVUS signal into the frequency domain; analyze said transformed signal for a plurality of identifiable parameters; and use said plurality of identifiable parameters and at least a portion of said first set of parameters to characterize at least a portion of said vascular tissue; wherein said database is further adapted to store at least two parameters corresponding to said plurality of vascular tissue types, said at least two parameters being selected from a group consisting of maximum power, minimum power, frequency at maximum power, frequency at minimum power, y intercept, slope, mid-band fit, and integrated backscatter.