A catheter assembly for sensing the temperature of an arterial wall includes ablood-flow-occluding feature (604) to increase the accuracy the temperaturemeasurements. The catheter includes a distal end with a temperature sensingstructure (602) and a proximal end including a manually operated expansioncontrol. The temperature sensing structure includes presentation elements inthe form of a basket or braided structure (702) having at least onetemperature sensor (710) supported thereon. The presentation elements arephysically coupled to the manually operated expansion control, such thatoperation of the control causes the structure to move between a collapsedstate and an expanded state. The feature to occlude blood flow is aninflatable balloon (604) disposed near the expandable basket or braidstructure (602).
