Camera-in-a-pill

Search Amazon.com for endoscopic capsule- endoscopic capsule-Video capsule puts bowel lesions on view. (Ages 10-18 Years).: An article from: Family Practice News

Camera-in-a-pill

Your doctor needs to examine the middle portion of your digestive tract. Conventional technology using long flexible tubes won't quite do the trick.Instead, your doctor hands you a pill the size of a multivitamin. The pill has a tiny camera inside. You swallow the pill with water and put a recorder belt on your waist. Eight hours later, you return the recorder belt to your doctor, who gives it to specialists who look for abnormalities by reviewing a video created from the camera's images.

Sound too good to be true? Not any more. This year, digestive disorders specialists at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics expect to use the endoscopic capsule- -a 'camera in a pill'--to help more than 150 patients.The endoscopic capsule comes at a time when physicians typically insert flexible tubes that contain cameras to examine portions of a patient's digestive tract. However, endoscopes can only examine the upper portions of the digestive system, while colonoscopes study the lower portion, or colon.

That leaves about 20 feet of the small intestine that cannot be effectively viewed with standard tests.
"The endoscopic capsule helps fill that gap," said David Ramkumar, M.D., a gastroenterologist at UI Hospitals and Clinics. "It provides a view of that middle portion of the digestive tract that we have not had previously."The camera pill provides a non-invasive diagnostic option for patients with disorders such as unexplained bleeding, Crohn's disease, Celiac disease and intestinal tumors.

Specialists review video created from these high-quality images for any abnormalities. The device detects abnormalities appropriately in 60 to 70 percent of cases, a diagnostic yield that is superior to all other conventional tests combined.The FDA approved the camera pill in 2001 for patients with unexplained bleeding that cannot be pinpointed by other means. UI Hospitals and Clinics specialists charge $1,200 to conduct an imaging study using the technology for patients referred by a physician.The camera-in-a-pill is a not a replacement for colonoscopy.