National Instruments and The Engineer Celebrate the Best of British Engineering at the 2008 Technology & Innovation Awards

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New Sensor that could Revolutionise Kidney Stone Therapy Wins Medical & Healthcare Category, Sponsored by NI

Newbury, UK, Oct 27, 2008 – National Instruments UK & Ireland congratulates Precision Acoustics, Southampton University and Guy’s & St.Thomas’ Trust for winning the Medical & Healthcare Category, sponsored by NI at The Engineer’s Technology & Innovation Awards 2008.  The winning collaborative team designed a new sensor that uses acoustics to measure the impact of kidney stone treatment, which has the potential to improve the care of thousands of patients.

Extracorporeal shock wave lothotripsy (ESWL) is used in the treatment of kidney stones to deliver shock waves from outside the patient’s body to break up the stone.  To be effective, the shock waves must hit the stone repeatedly, although currently there is no way for doctors to monitor this during the treatment process.  Professor Timothy Leighton of Southampton University, an acoustics and ultrasound expert, worked with Dr Andrew Hurrell from Precision Acoustics to design a passive acoustic sensor to solve this problem. 

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