Tiny M2A, The Camera-In-A-Pill, Allows Doctors To See Inside The Gut Friday November 1, 2002
Patient swallows camera for unique look inside their small bowel.
Everyday Christopher Hartley, 47, of Kissimmee deals with abdominal pain. After undergoing a variety of gastrointestinal examinations doctors have not been able to pinpoint what exactly is causing Hartley’s discomfort. Now doctors at Florida Hospital Celebration Health are using a new camera-in-a-pill to further examine Hartley’s small bowel. The M2A swallowable, imaging capsule allows doctors to view the entire small bowel, where traditional endoscopic procedures only view the top one-third of the small bowel.
The M2A capsule packs a camera, light source, radio transmitter, batteries, and an antenna into a device measuring only 11 mm by 26 mm and weighing about 4 grams. Once the capsule is swallowed the image of the intestine is captured by the video camera and transmitted by radio frequency to an array of sensors worn around the patient’s abdomen. The patient removes the belt and data recorder after approximately eight hours and returns the belt and recorder. The video images are then downloaded onto the RAPID workstation. The doctor can then examine the video to look for abnormalities. The software allows the physician to view both streaming video images and also image-by-image.
