A camera pill to diagnose, evaluate esophagus diseases

Gastroesophagael reflux (GERD) is the third most prevalent disease in the U.S., costing the most in annual direct costs – some $9.3 billion a year. Now a new camera contained in an easily-swallowed smooth plastic capsule is being used to diagnose and evaluate GERD and other diseases like erosive esophagitis and Barrett's esophagus (a pre-cancerous condition) without the need to use the more traditional endoscope.

Requiring sedation and several hours of recovery, traditional endoscopy uses a long, flexible tube, called an endoscope, which is placed into the patient's mouth, then advanced down the throat into the esophagus. That has changed."With the camera pill, we now have a revolutionary technology that offers a quick, easy, office-based test that may help many people avoid traditional endoscopy," says Dr. Michael Brown of Rush University Medical Center, the first center in Chicago offering the treatment.

Patients fast for two hours before swallowing the camera with a glass of water while they lie on their backs and are then raised by a 30 degree angle every two minutes for a six-minute period, until ending sitting up.market trendsCircle 20 Circle 1815Today's Medical Developments July/August 2005The camera-in-a-pill moves through the esophagus in about three minutes, then glides down the esophageal track taking 2,600 color digital pictures – a rate of 14 pictures per second, which are transmitted to a recording device worn around the patient waist, as a belt. After 20 minutes physicians have enough video images to make an evaluation. The capsule passes from the patient's body in 24 to 72 hours, naturally, painlessly.

Studies indicate the camera, called the PillCam ESO, is as accurate as traditional endoscopy. A similar camera has been used on more than 150,000 patients across the country since 2001 for analysis of the small bowel/intestine.