Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy has been clinically successful for more than 5 years. Currently, several devices commonly termed second generation lithotriptors are under experimental or clinical trials. We present a prototype multifunctional urological table that uses a new mode of shock wave generation along with local coupling to the patient. The results of the first 400 treatments are presented after a brief description of pre-clinical experiments. The prototype has been in operation since March 1986. Particular attention is paid to adjuvant endourological measures, which all have been performed on the same table.

The authors designed a multichannel system for noninvasive measurement of the extremely weak magnetic fields generated by the brain and the heart. It uses a flat array of 37 superconducting magnetic field-sensing coils connected to sophisticated superconducting quantum interference devices. To prevent interference from external electromagnetic fields, the system is operated inside a shielded room. Complete sets of coherent data, even from spontaneous events, can be recorded. System performance was evaluated with phantom measurements and evoked-response studies. A spatial resolution of a few millimeters and a temporal resolution of a millisecond were obtained. First results in patients with partial epilepsy and investigations of the cardiac conductive pathway indicate that biomagnetism is now ready for a systematic clinical evaluation. Interpretation of measurements was facilitated by highlighting biomagnetically localized electrical activity in three-dimensional digital magnetic resonance images.

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The components of the biomagnetic multichannel system Krenikon are described. The combination of biomagnetically yielded localizations with anatomic images gained from MR or CT is discussed as well as the enhancement of the signal-to-noise ratio by using a correlation technique. The overall localization accuracy is tested with technical phantoms. With volunteers measurements of auditory, visual and somatosensory evoked fields are performed to evaluate the system performance in vivo. Clinical studies were performed mainly with partners from the Universities of Erlangen-Nünberg and Ulm. The data acquisition time typically is 2-10 min which is tolerable both for the patient and the clinical staff. Electric potentials even with invasive electrodes can be recorded simultaneously with the magnetic fields. MEG gives important information for the presurgical diagnosis of epileptic patients and for the understanding of the epilepsy genesis. With MCG, centres of biologic excitation such as ventricular ectopies or accessory bundles in WPW syndrome have been successfully localized.