Sanuwave Health, an emerging medical technology company focused on regenerative medicine, has received European patent EP 1,452,141 entitled 'Shock Wave Generating Device.'
Sanuwave Health said that the patent provides exclusive rights to the company in human and animal treatment devices that include the 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, the 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.
Sanuwave Health said that this is 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.
Christopher Cashman, president and CEO of Sanuwave, said: “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.
“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.”