Excimer laser angioplasty: Tissue ablation, arterial response, and fiber optic delivery

The results of recent work directed towards the application of excimer lasers to angioplasty are presented. Several laser-tissue interactions are examined, including the effect of the XeCl laser optical pulse duration (7-300 ns) on the threshold fluence for ablation of arterial wall and on the quality of the cut in human postmortem artery, the potential for altering the ablation threshold fluence of arterial plaque in swine by treatment with hematoporphyrin derivative, and the healing response of swine arterial wall to surgical irradiation with an argon laser and a pulsed XeCl laser. The dependence of damage thresholds and transmission properties of selected commercial fused silica fibers on the laser pulsewidth and wavelength are determined.