Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 15
Claim 1
Independent Claim
118 words
A probe for determining P O .sbsb.2 in the blood or tissue of a living animal, comprising: an oxygen-porous jacket of a size sufficiently small to be passed into a blood vessel; a porous dye support carried within said jacket, said dye support and said jacket having sufficiently high permeability to permit the exposure of individual dye molecules carried thereby to oxygen collision; a non-toxic luminescent dye carried by said porous dye support, said dye being excitable by visible light, having and sufficiently great stability to aging to permit storage without substantial change of dye characteristics, and being oxygen quenching-sensitive; and fiber optic means to pass excitation light to said dye within said jacket and collect luminescence therefrom.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
118 words
A probe for determining P O .sbsb.2 in the blood or tissue of a living animal, comprising: an oxygen-porous jacket of a size sufficiently small to be passed into a blood vessel; a porous dye support carried within said jacket, said dye support and said jacket having sufficiently high permeability to permit the exposure of individual dye molecules carried thereby to oxygen collision; a non-toxic luminescent dye carried by said porous dye support, said dye being excitable by visible light, having and sufficiently great stability to aging to permit storage without substantial change of dye characteristics, and being oxygen quenching-sensitive; and fiber optic means to pass excitation light to said dye within said jacket and collect luminescence therefrom.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
12 words
A probe according to claim 1, wherein said dye is perylene dibutyrate.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
19 words
A probe according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein said porous dye support is a porous organic polymer.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
15 words
A probe according to claim 1, and wherein said porous dye support comprises silica gel.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
19 words
A probe according to claim 1, and wherein said porous dye support comprises a porous adsorptive particulate polymeric material.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
15 words
A probe according to claim 1, and wherein said porous dye support comprises Amberlite XAD4.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
18 words
A probe according to claim 1, and wherein said oxygen-porous jacket comprises a tubular envelope of porous material.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
15 words
A probe according to claim 7, and wherein said tubular envelope is formed of Celgard.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
34 words
A probe according to claim 1, and wherein said oxygen-porous jacket comprises porous polypropylene sheet material heat-sealed into tubing, closed at one end and provided at said closed end with a tapered closure tip.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
35 words
A probe according to claim 1, and wherein said fiber optic means comprises at least one strand of transparent plastic fiber with one end extending into said jacket and being optically exposed to said dye.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
33 words
A probe according to claim 1, and wherein said fiber optic means comprises two strands of transparent flexible plastic fiber with ends extending into said jacket and being optically exposed to said dye.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
89 words
A probe according to claim 1, and wherein said fiber optic means includes a strand of transparent plastic fiber with one end extending into said jacket and being optically exposed to said dye, optical beam-splitting means optically exposed to the other end of said plastic fiber and forming two spaced optical beams from the light transmitted through the fiber, respective photoelectric signal generating means in the paths of said two optical beams, and P O .sbsb.2 computing circuit means connected to the outputs of said photoelectric signal generating means.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
31 words
A probe according to claim 12, and respective different-color filter means optically interposed in the paths of the two optical beams between the beam-splitting means and the photoelectric signal generating means.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
55 words
A probe according to claim 13, and wherein one color filter means passes only light corresponding to the luminescence wavelength of the dye, and the other color filter means passes light only of a color corresponding to that of scattered incident light to which the dye is exposed and which is reflected from the dye.