Patent Document ID: 9339192
Application ID: 14836705
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of imaging a blood vessel of a subject comprising: providing an elongated body sized and shaped to be inserted into the blood vessel, the elongated body having proximal and distal ends, the elongated body including a plurality of optical fibers extending lengthwise along the elongated body, each optical fiber including at least one imaging portion including an optical-to-acoustic transducer and an acoustic-to-optical transducer; sequentially transmitting light along the plurality of optical fibers; sequentially transducing the transmitted light into acoustic energy; sequentially providing the acoustic energy to a region of interest in the vasculature; sequentially receiving at the imaging portion responsive acoustic energy from the region of interest; sequentially transducing the received acoustic energy into responsive light; sequentially communicating the responsive light along the plurality of optical fibers; and forming a viewable image of at least a portion of the region of interest based at least in part on the responsive light.