Argonne, Baxter to Teach Old Laser New Tricks

Michael Pellin (left) and Dieter Gruen (both of Argonne's Materials Sciences Division) co-discovered the medical applications of the excimer laser with the late Charles Young in 1987 when they were with Argonne's Chemistry Division.

New applications of a 16-year-old discovery by Argonne researchers are expected under a licensing agreement between Argonne and Baxter Healthcare Corporation.

The Argonne scientists invented a laser system which has been commercialized and is being used worldwide in the medical treatment of clogged and plaque-filled arteries, occluded vein grafts, and impacted or infected pacemaker and defibrillator leads.

The Argonne invention centers on the discovery that high-intensity 308-nanometer excimer laser radiation can remove abnormal tissue without harming surrounding healthy tissue. The discovery led to the field of laser angioplasty.

"It was our recognition of the fact that the near-ultraviolet radiation of this laser can be transmitted with very little loss through a quartz fiber optic catheter that made possible the application of laser surgical procedures to cardiovascular disease," said Dieter M. Gruen. Other members of the research team that made the discovery in 1983 were Michael Pellin and the late Charles Young. The group was awarded a U.S. patent in 1987.

Conventional lasers require such high energies to remove tissue that they often generate heat that can damage surrounding healthy tissue. This is a particular problem in heart surgery, where using a conventional laser to remove damaged tissue from within a blood vessel could weaken or penetrate an adjacent vessel wall.

Excimer lasers, however, don't generate heat but can turn tissue to gas by breaking chemical bonds. The result is a more effective use of the laser energy in penetrating and severing tissue with less heat on surrounding tissue.

Argonne's development of the process stemmed from basic research on specialized techniques using lasers to examine various systems, ranging from plasmas used to produce fusion energy to the composition of meteorites from the moon. This basic research, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences, led to "unexpected benefits in medicine, an area one would not have considered as an application at the beginning of the laser investigations," Gruen said.

In early 2001 the Department of Energy named Argonne's excimer laser technology as one of its top 23 innovations.

Source. Argonne News, Monday, August 30, 1999

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