Appeal No. 2006-3202 Page 2
Application No. 10/323,592
traumatic and unwanted effects.” Id., page 1, lines 19-21. The prior art has shown that
inflamed plaques produce more heat than non-inflamed plaques. Id., page 1,
line 26-page 2, line 6.
The instant application describes the finding that, when thermal measurements
are taken from arteries with flowing blood, the differences recorded between inflamed
and normal vessel regions are “much lower” than those observed in the prior art. Id.,
page 3, lines 6-10.
Discussion
Claim construction
Claims 1-20, 22-25, 27-41, and 43-50 are on appeal. Separate reasons for
patentability have been provided for claim 30-33. Brief, page 16. Consequently, these
claims stand or fall apart from claims 1-20, 22-25, 27-29, 34-41, and 43-50. We select
claims 11 and 30 as representative of the claim groupings.
1. A method of diagnosing the presence of inflamed atherosclerotic plaque in
a blood vessel of a subject, the method comprising:
providing a temperature detection device which detects temperature at the
inner vascular wall,
introducing the temperature detection device into a blood vessel,
determining a reference temperature value,
measuring at least one first temperature value at the inner vascular wall,
determining the difference between the first temperature value and the
reference temperature value,
and, where the difference is above zero but not more than 0.39°C,
diagnosing the presence of inflamed atherosclerotic plaque in the blood vessel,
wherein throughout the method the blood flow velocity in the blood vessel
is at least 5 cm/s.
1 Claim 1 in the Appendix to the Brief contained an error in not incorporating a claim amendment made
April 4, 2005. The text of claim 1 which is reproduced here correctly incorporates the amendment.
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