Patent ID: 7004938

Claim:
A shapeable curvilinear radio-frequency antenna apparatus for ablating biological tissue within the body vessel of a patient, comprising: a) a flexible catheter body including a distal portion and an elongated lumen; b) inner and outer coaxially aligned, circumferentially spaced, longitudinally elongated conductors extending within the catheter and coaxial with the lumen; c) a dielectrically enclosed flexible curvilinear radio-frequency antenna carried by the distal portion of the flexible catheter body in electrical communication with the inner and outer coaxially aligned conductors and adaptable to receive and transmit radio-frequency energy to apply a substantially consistently distributed electromagnetic field energy along the radio-frequency antenna for ablating biological tissue; d) a pre-shaped deflection member carried by the flexible curvilinear radio-frequency antenna adaptable to take a pre-shaped memory curvilinear configuration; e) a deflection regulating member operatively associated with the pre-shaped deflection member for regulating the deflection of said pre-shaped deflection member, wherein at least one of the pre-shaped deflection member and the deflection regulating member controllable for changing the configuration of the flexible curvilinear radio-frequency antenna between a straight configuration and a pre-shaped memory curvilinear configuration, wherein the deflection regulating member and the pre-shaped deflection member are relatively slidably with respect to each other in the elongated lumen.