TUNABLE INFRARED LASER FOR MEDICAL APPLICATIONS

THIS RESEARCH WILL INVESTIGATE THE MEDICAL APPLICATIONS OF ATUNABLE, MID-INFRARED SOLID-STATE LASER BASED ON THE CRYSTALCO:MGF2. APPLICATIONS REQUIRING PRECISE TISSURE ABLATION VIA FIBER DELIVERY, SUCH AS ANGIOPLASTY , APPEAR PARTICULAR APPROPRIATE FOR THE SYSTEM. THE CO:MGF2 LASER TUNABILITY , OVER THE SPECTRAL REGION FROM 1.7 TO 2.5 MICRONS, PROVIDES AND ADJUSTMENT OF THE TISSUE PENETRATION DEPTH AND THUS A NEW DEGREE OF CONTROL IN MEDICAL PROCEDURES. INCLUDED IN THETUNING RANGE IS A STRONG LIQUID-WATER ABSORPTION BAND PEAKING AT 1.94 MICRONS. IF THE CO:MGF2 LASER DOES PROVE TOBE SUITABLE FOR MEDICAL APPLICATIONS, THE LONG-TERM GOAL OF THE RESEARCH WOULD BE TO DEVELOP CLINICAL PROCEDURES AND A CLINICALLY QUALIFIED LASER SYSTEM. IN THE PHASE I PROGRAM, A PORTABLE LASER SYSTEM COUPLED TO A FUSED SILICA FIBER WILL BE CONSTRUCTED AND PLACED IN LOCALMEDICAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES WHERE EXPERIMENTS BASED ON ESTABLISHED PROTOCOLS WILL BE PERFORMED ON TISSUE INTERACTION WITH A NEW VARIABLE OF LASER WAVELENGTH INCLUDEDEXPRIMENTS TO DETERMINE PRACTICAL LIMITS TO THE LASER OUTPUT ENERGY WILL ALSO BE CARRIED OUT. THE RELATIVE SIMPLICITY AND VERSATILITY OF CO:MGF2 LASER INDICATE THAT COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITIES ARE SIGNIFICANT, GIVEN THE DEVELOPMENT OF EFFECTIVE CLINICAL PROCEDURES.