New Nitric Oxide Sensor Raises Accuracy

City Technology has developed a new nitric oxide sensor that provides unparalleled sensitivity, repeatability, stability and speed of response. The NO sensor has been developed specifically for medical applications; in particular, it will supplement existing City products monitoring patients in intensive care and premature babies in neonatal units who are receiving Inhaled Nitric Oxide Therapy to assist with breathing difficulties. It will also be deployed in instruments measuring NO in the breath of patients suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, where the sensor’s performance with differing breath conditions obviates the need for large and expensive sample conditioning. It will allow the manufacturers of breath monitoring equipment to develop smaller instruments, making their devices more widely available; for example, they could be installed in doctors’

surgeries where they will enable patients to be given sophisticated tests without, as would previously have been the case, requiring them to attend hospital as an out- or in-patient.

The sophisticated design of the sensor, which does not require the sample of exhaled breath to be adjusted to a particular temperature and pressure to achieve a reliable reading, will enable lower cost instruments to be developed, allowing their use to be extended into an increased number of more mainstream establishments.

The device itself requires only ten seconds exposure to achieve a reliable reading of the NO content of the exhaled breath. It resolves down to 10 parts per billion, at least twenty times better than any other sensor available on the market today. The design of the sensor gives excellent stability in the presence of transient humidity changes, further reducing the complexity required of the instrument; it has a 10 to 30°C operating range and is packaged in the company’s industry-standard compact 7 Series encapsulation. It is rated for more than 2000 exposures and operates on a catalytic, non-consumable principle