ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,496,036, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to PHILIPS IMAGE GUIDED THERAPY Corp. (San Diego).

"Physiology sensing intraluminal device with positioning guidance and associated devices, systems, and methods" was invented by Meredith Boutelle (Encinitas, Calif.), Stephen Charles Davies (El Dorado Hills, Calif.), Albert Hendrik Jan Immink (Eindhoven, Netherlands) and Suresh Narayanan (San Marcos, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An intraluminal sensing system is provided that includes an intraluminal device. The intraluminal device has a flexible elongate member configured to be positioned within a body lumen of a patient, and an ultrasou...