Appeal No. 2006-3202 Page 3
Application No. 10/323,592
30. 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
diagnosing the presence of inflamed atherosclerotic plaque in the blood
vessel where the difference is above zero but not more than 0.14°C.
Claim 1 involves five basic steps: 1) “introducing” a device to measure
temperature into a blood vessel; 2) “determining” a reference temperature;
3) “measuring” the temperature of a region of the vessel wall (“inner vascular wall”);
4) “determining” the difference between the measured temperature and the “reference
temperature”; and 5) diagnosing the presence of an inflamed plaque when the
temperature difference is “above zero but not more than 0.39°C.” The temperatures are
recorded from a blood vessel having a blood flow velocity of “at least 5 cm/s.”
Claim 30 is similarly constructed, but it does not require the presence of blood
flow in the vessel. The inflamed plaque is diagnosed when the difference between the
reference and vessel wall temperatures is “above zero but not more than 0.14°C.”
Rejection under § 103
Claims 1-20, 22-25, 27-41, and 43-50 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a)
as obvious over Casscells ‘2612 in view of Nakano.3
2 Casscells et al. (Cascells ‘261), U.S. Pat. No. 6,763,261, issued Jul. 13, 2004.
3 Nakano et al. (Nakano), J. Nippon Med. Sch., 68:482-489, 2001.
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