Patent ID: 7640046

Claim:
A system for localizing myocardial infarction (MI) in a heart having a cardiac wall, the system comprising: a transvenous catheter including a proximal end, a distal end, and a sensor link extending from the proximal end and the distal end, the distal end configured for endocardial placement on the cardiac wall; a myocardial tissue property sensor incorporated into the distal end of the catheter, the myocardial tissue property sensor adapted to be placed in a plurality of locations, one at a time, over at least a portion of the cardiac wall to sense signals each indicative of at least one tissue property associated with one of the plurality of locations and each changing as a result of MI, the myocardial tissue property sensor including an optical sensor adapted to emit a light and receive the sensed signals; and a tissue property analyzer configured to be connected to the proximal end of the catheter and coupled to the myocardial tissue property sensor via electrical connections of the sensor link, the tissue property analyzer adapted to produce a tissue property map presenting a measure of the at least one tissue property over the at least the portion of the cardiac wall using the sensed signals and further adapted to detect one or more infarcted regions using the tissue property map and a template spectrum associated with known infarcted tissue.