Melvin Czar C.

Fetilo
2B1-BSN
STS

Latest Medical Technology:

“Magnet-Controlled Camera In The
Body”

Images of the inside of the intestine can be obtained even today: The patient
swallows a camera that is no larger than a candy. It makes its way through
the intestine and transmits images of the intestinal villi to an external
receiver which the patient carries on a belt. This device stores the data so
that the physician can later analyze them and identify any hemorrhages or
cysts. However, the camera is not very suitable for examinations of the
esophagus and the stomach.

The reason is that camera only takes about three or four seconds to make its
way through the esophagus – producing two to four images per second – and
once it reaches the stomach, its roughly five-gram weight causes it to drop
very quickly to the lower wall of the stomach. In other words, it is too fast to
deliver usable images. For examinations of the esophagus and the stomach,
therefore, patients still have to swallow a rather thick endoscope.

In collaboration with engineers from the manufacturer Given Imaging, the

Israelite Hospital in Hamburg and the Royal Imperial College in London,
researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering in
Sankt Ingbert have developed the first-ever control system for the camera
pill. “In future, doctors will be able to stop the camera in the esophagus,
move it up and down and turn it, and thus adjust the angle of the camera as
required,” says IBMT team leader Dr. Frank Volke.

“This allows them to make a precise examination of the junction between

the esophagus and the stomach, for if the cardiac sphincter is not functioning
properly, gastric acid comes up the esophagus and causes heartburn. In the
long term, this may even cause cancer of the esophagus. Now, with the
camera, we can even scan the stomach walls.” But how do the researchers
manage to steer the disposable camera inside the body? “We have developed
a magnetic device roughly the size of a bar of chocolate. The doctor can hold
it in his hand during the examination and move it up and down the patient’s
body. The camera inside follows this motion precisely,” says Volke.

The steerable camera pill is constructed in much the same way as its
predecessor: It consists of a camera, a transmitter that sends the images to
the receiver, a battery and several cold-light diodes which briefly flare up
like a flashlight every time a picture is taken. One prototype of the camera
pill has already passed its first practical test in the human body. The
researchers demonstrated in a self-experiment that the camera can be kept in
the esophagus for about ten minutes, even if the patient is sitting upright.