Jul 21 2010
SANUWAVE Health, Inc. (OTCBB: SNWV), an emerging medical technology company focused on regenerative medicine, reports that the Company was granted European patent EP 1,452,141 entitled "Shock Wave Generating Device," which provides the Company exclusive rights in human and animal treatment devices that include the novel use of piezoelectric fibers to produce acoustic energy in the shock wave spectrum.
Piezoelectric fibers change shape in response to positive and negative voltage, thereby displacing fluid and producing a shock wave. In the case of SANUWAVE’s PACE™ technology, this rapid shape change of the fibers, or vibration, produces high-energy sound waves that travel outward into bodily tissue.
Piezoelectric fibers have a diameter of 1mm or less, can be straight or curved, and can be densely assembled side-by-side to conform to any geometric shape, providing advantages over piezoelectric quartz crystals, which align best in a linear configuration. This is particularly important for the Company’s PACE™ treatment applicators as piezoelectric fibers can bend and be densely packed without creating gaps between them, allowing the energy delivered through a PACE™ treatment applicator to be focused precisely at varying depths, regardless of the geometry of the reflector.
“Gaining this European patent on piezoelectric fibers to produce acoustic energy in the shock wave spectrum provides a significant competitive advantage for our PACE™ technology as the smaller, targeted focal volume created by piezoelectric fiber technology will allow us to deliver shock waves with greater accuracy by focusing the energy to a precise point in the targeted tissue while minimizing exposure of the delivered energy to the surrounding tissue,” noted Christopher M. Cashman, President and CEO of SANUWAVE. “Since piezoelectric fibers can be tightly assembled to any geometric shape, we have maximum flexibility in product design and can develop a variety of applicator sizes and shapes to focus the energy at virtually any point within the body – from superficial to deep. In addition, the small size of the piezoelectric fibers allows us to miniaturize the treatment applicator, thereby improving its applicability, ease of use, ergonomics and even disposability.”
Cashman concluded, “These technological advances will allow the Company to develop new protocols or initiate research for targeted applications within our core market focuses of orthopedics and cardiac care, as well as in uses with stem cells, cancer, and select neural and spinal applications.”
Source: http://www.sanuwave.com/