| Optical therapy devices, systems, kits and methods for providing therapy to a body cavity -> Monitor Keywords |
|
|
 
Optical therapy devices, systems, kits and methods for providing therapy to a body cavityRelated Patent Categories: Surgery: Light, Thermal, And Electrical Application, Light, Thermal, And Electrical Application, Baths Or Cabinets, Liquid Receiving Tub, For Body MemberOptical therapy devices, systems, kits and methods for providing therapy to a body cavity description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060195165, Optical therapy devices, systems, kits and methods for providing therapy to a body cavity. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCE [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part application of Ser. No. 11/152,946, filed Jun. 14, 2005, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and to which application priority is claimed under 35 USC .sctn. 120. [0002] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/646,818, filed Jan. 25, 2005 and U.S. Provisional Application 60/661,688 filed Mar. 14, 2005, which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Infection of a patient takes many forms. Typically, acute bacterial infections are rather easily controlled using standard antibiotic therapies. Chronic infections, on the other hand, are often very difficult to control for several reasons: (1) the antimicrobial flora of chronically infected regions of the body often develop resistance to standard antibiotics due to multiple attempts to treat the flora with antimicrobial therapy; (2) the microbes often form biofilms to protect themselves against the protective mechanisms of the patient; and (3) many chronic infections occur around man-made implants which often serve as a nidus for microbes to proliferate as well as form biofilms. Examples of chronic infections include: vascular access catheter infections, chemotherapy port infections, peritoneal dialysis access catheter infections, vaginal yeast infections, ventriculo-peritoneal shunts, sinus tracts in patients with Crohn's disease, chronic bronchitis and COPD, helicobacter pylori infections of the stomach, aerobic and anaerobic infections of the small intestine and colon, and chronic ear infections, to name a few. There is also increasing evidence that atherosclerosis is caused by infections by micro-organisms such as Chlamydia. [0004] Atopy refers to an inherited propensity to respond immunologically to many common, naturally occurring inhaled and ingested allergens with the continual production of IgE antibodies. Allergic rhinitis and asthma are the most common clinical manifestations of atopic disease affecting approximately 50 million people in the United States alone. There is a great deal of overlap among patients with atopic disease. For example, patients with atopic asthma have a greater likelihood of developing allergic rhinitis and dermatitis, and vice versa. Indeed, the pathophysiology for atopic diseases is generally the same whether or not the affected organ is the skin, the nose, the lungs, or the gastrointestinal tract. [0005] Contact with an allergic particle (for example, pollen, cat dander, or food particle) reacts with an associated antibody on the mast cell, which leads to prompt mediator release and clinical symptoms. The IgE antibody response is perpetuated by T cells (antigen specific memory cells or other regulatory cells), which also have specificity for the allergens. [0006] Kemeny, et al., in Intranasal Irradiation with the Xenon Chloride Ultraviolet B Laser Improves Allergic Rhinitis, 75 Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology 137-144 (2004) and Koreck, et al., in Rhinophototherapy: A New Therapeutic Tool for the Management of Allergic Rhinitis, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (March 2005), describe a treatment for allergic rhinitis using the same theory espoused for the efficacy of ultraviolet light in atopic dermatitis. Their placebo-controlled study showed the efficacy of ultraviolet therapy to treat allergic, or atopic, rhinitis over the course of an allergy season. [0007] The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that each year, nearly 2 million people in the United States acquire an infection while in a hospital, resulting in 90,000 deaths. More than 70 percent of the bacteria that cause these infections are resistant to at least one of the antibiotics commonly used to treat them. Between 1979 and 1987, it is estimated that only 0.02 percent of pneumococcus strains infecting a large number of patients surveyed by the CDC were penicillin-resistant. As of 1994 that percent was estimated to have increased to 6.6 percent, and may currently approach 25%, by some estimates. Thus, as resistance increases, the importance of developing new treatment modalities increases. [0008] A variety of devices are known for delivering light therapy. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,616,722 to Vernon for Kromayer Light Attachment; U.S. Pat. No. 1,782,906 to Newman for Device for Treating the Stomach with Ultra-Violet Rays; U.S. Pat. No. 1,800,277 to Boerstler for Method for Producing Therapeutic Rays; U.S. Pat. No. 2,227,422 to Boerstler for Applicator for Use in Treatment with Therapeutic Rays; U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,930 to Lundahl for Intracavity Laser Phototherapy Method; U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,917 to Wagnieres for Fiber-Optic Apparatus for the Photodynamic Treatment of Tumors; U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,346 to Ceravolo for Bactericidal Therapeutic Throat Gun; U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,436 to Mendes for Treatment of Rhinitus by Biostimulative Illumination; U.S. Pat. No. 6,663,659 to McDaniel for Method and Apparatus for the Photomodulation of Cells; U.S. Pat. No. 6,764,501 to Ganz for Apparatus and Method for Treating Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease Through Light Sterilization; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,890,346 to Ganz for Apparatus and Method for Debilitating or Killing Microorganisms within the Body. Additionally, U.S. Patent Publ. 2002/0029071 to Whitehurst for Therapeutic Light Source and Method; U.S. Patent Publ. 2004/0030368 to Kemeny for Phototherapeutical Method and System for the Treatment of Inflammatory and Hyperproliferative Disorders of the Nasal Mucosa; and U.S. Patent Publ. 2005/0107853 to Krespi for Control of Rhinosinusitus-Related, and Other Microorganisms in the Sino-Nasal Tract. See, also PCT Publ. WO 03/013653 to Kemeny for Phototherapeutical Apparatus. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] The invention relates to an optical therapy device for providing therapeutic light to a body cavity. An embodiment of the invention includes: a housing adapted to be hand-held; one or more light sources positioned in or on said housing adapted to deliver up to 50 mW of UV light; and an insertion member having a distal end configured to be inserted into the body cavity to illuminate tissue in the body cavity with light from the light source when the distal end of the insertion member is positioned in the body cavity. [0010] Another embodiment of the invention includes: an insertion member having a distal end configured to be inserted into the body cavity; and a UV light source at the distal end of the insertion member, wherein the insertion member is adapted to illuminate tissue in the body cavity with UV light when the distal end of the insertion member is positioned in the body cavity. [0011] Still another embodiment of the invention includes a patient interface for an optical therapy device for providing therapeutic light to a body cavity, comprising: an insertion member having a distal end configured to be positioned into a body cavity to illuminate target tissue in the body cavity with UV light from a UV light source when the distal end of the insertion member is positioned in the body cavity. The insertion member can be further adapted to have an alignment member adapted to align the insertion member within the cavity and a direction element adapted to direct light onto target tissue. [0012] Yet another embodiment of the invention includes an optical therapy device for providing therapeutic light to a body cavity, comprising: an insertion member having a distal end configured to be inserted into the body cavity; a light source at the distal end of the insertion member and adapted to illuminate tissue in the body cavity when the distal end of the insertion member is positioned in the body cavity; the insertion member being further adapted to transfer heat proximally from the light source. [0013] The optical therapy devices of the embodiments of the invention may include one or more light sources; such as light sources that are solid state or LEDs. Alternatively, the light sources may emit non-coherent light. In still other embodiments, the light sources may be UV light sources that emit non-coherent light in a range from 250 nm to 279 mm. In other embodiments, the UV light source may be limited in wavelength to 300 nm to 320 nm. In yet other embodiments, the UV light source in the range of 280 nm to 320 mm, while other embodiments may use a UV light source that is restricted to a wavelength range from 250 nm to 320 mm. In still other embodiments, the light source may be adapted to emit substantially only UV light. [0014] The optical therapy devices of the embodiments of the invention can be adapted and configured to provide any of the light sources at the distal end of the insertion member. In some embodiments, the light sources are provided along the length of the insertion member or tube. In still other embodiments, the light sources are provided in the body or hand-piece. In yet other embodiments, light sources are provided at a plurality of locations within or along the device. [0015] The optical therapy devices of the embodiments of the invention can be adapted and configured to provide a housing supporting the insertion member and a power source disposed in or on the housing, the power source being adapted to provide power to the light source. [0016] The optical therapy device of the embodiments of the invention can be adapted and configured such that the insertion member is further adapted to transfer heat proximally when the light source is at the distal end of the insertion member. In other embodiments, the insertion member can be adapted to focus eight from the light source. [0017] In other embodiments, the insertion member is further adapted to comprise an expandable member adapted and configured to expand within the body cavity. In some embodiments of the invention, a balloon is used. The balloon may be and optical conditioner that is at least partially transparent to UV light and at least partially covers one or more light sources. In other embodiments, the balloon may be configured to partially absorb light from one or more light sources. The expandable member can be adapted to be transparent to UV light. In other embodiments, the expandable member can be adapted to focus light from the light source. In some embodiments, the expandable member can be adapted to cool the device when expanded. [0018] The insertion member can be configured, in some embodiments, to have a shape adapted to enter a body cavity. In some embodiments, the insertion member can be further adapted to emit light into more than one body cavity simultaneously. The insertion member can be adapted to bend light at an angle defined by the insertion member. In other embodiments, the insertion member is adapted to be flexible and to form a variable angle. The insertion member may be adapted to split into one or more elongate tubes. In still other embodiments, the insertion member is adapted to be rigid with a fixed angle. In still other embodiments, the insertion member is adapted to be partially transparent to UV light and to at least partially cover one or more light sources. [0019] The optical therapy devices of the embodiments of the invention are suitable for use in a body cavity. Body cavities include, for example, the nasal cavity, a vestibule of the nasal cavity, the thoracic cavity, the abdominal cavity, lumen of a vessel, the gastrointestinal cavity, the pericardial cavity, and the heart, to name a few. [0020] The optical therapy devices of the embodiments of the invention may further comprise a data collection unit connectable to a controller. In other embodiments, the controller may be adapted to connect a power source to the light source. The controller may be configured to individually control one or more of a plurality of light sources. Additionally, the controller may be configured to store the total amount of energy emitted by one or more of a plurality of light sources. In some embodiments, the controller can be configured to control which of the plurality of light sources is powered on or powered off based on the total energy emitted by the light source. Alternatively, the controller can be configured to control which of the light sources is powered on or powered off based on a structure of the body cavity. In yet another embodiment, the controller can be configured to control which of the plurality of light sources is powered on or powered off based on programming by an operator. A controller may be provided that is adapted to connect a power source to the light source. The controller can also be adapted to separately address each of the light sources provided. [0021] The optical therapy devices of the embodiments of the invention may further comprise a recharger adapted to connect to a power source. In some embodiments, the device further comprises a power source disposed in or on the housing. The power source can be any suitable power source, including AC, DC, rechargeable, etc. Where a rechargeable power supply is provided, an embodiment of the invention can include a recharger adapted to recharge the power source. Continue reading about Optical therapy devices, systems, kits and methods for providing therapy to a body cavity... Full patent description for Optical therapy devices, systems, kits and methods for providing therapy to a body cavity Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Optical therapy devices, systems, kits and methods for providing therapy to a body cavity patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Optical therapy devices, systems, kits and methods for providing therapy to a body cavity or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Electro-therapeutic device and method of electro-therapeutic treatment Next Patent Application: Instrument for ultraviolet irradiation and ultraviolet irradiating apparatus Industry Class: Surgery: light, thermal, and electrical application ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Optical therapy devices, systems, kits and methods for providing therapy to a body cavity patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 0.23924 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Tyco , Unilever , Warner-lambert , 3m 174 |
 * Protect your Inventions * US Patent Office filing 
PATENT INFO |
|
