MAKING THE ROUNDS WITH Dr. Mitch Amish

Dr. Mitch Amish discusses the SmartPill, which detects acidity and pressures in the stomach and digestive tract, diagnosing gastrointestinal ailments.

If you suffer from gastroparesis, or think that you may have gastroparesis, I suggest that you talk to your physician about SmartPill. SmartPill provides a new, radiation- free alternative for assessing gastric motility functions.

While SmartPill will not replace long practiced procedures like endoscopy and colonoscopy, it may be used instead of gastric emptying scintigraphy, which exposes patients to radiation and manometry.

Now, let's talk about how SmartPill does its job. SmartPill is an ingestible, wireless capsule that measures pressure, pH and temperature as it transits the GI tract. This information is used to provide gastric emptying time, combined small and large bowel transit time, total transit time, pressure contraction patterns from the antrum, and duodenum and motility indices.

Administered in your physician's office, the SmartPill test is completely ambulatory, so you are free to go about your everyday routine during the course of the test. As the SmartPill pH.p Capsule passes through the GI tract, it transmits data to a SmartPill Data Receiver, that you may wear on a belt clip or on a lanyard around your neck. The Data Receiver may be removed for sleeping or bathing, as long as it is kept within five feet of you. Once the single-use capsule has passed from the body, you return the Data Receiver to your physician, who can then download the collected data to a PC. Your physician then uses SmartPill's MotiliGI software to analyze and display the data. Within five minutes, your physician will have test results, in both graphical and report formats.

I would like to discuss the different aspects involved in utilizing SmartPill. First, the SmartPill pH.p Capsule transits the intestines by peristalsis, the rhythmic contraction of the intestinal muscles; it is then capable of transmitting data continuously for more than 72 hours. The single-use capsule is excreted naturally from the body, usually within a day or two. Next, the SmartPill Data Receiver & Docking Station collects and stores your test data. The Receiver is capable of transmitting data for real-time monitoring of a test. It also stores a complete record of the data captured by the SmartPill pH.p Capsule for download to a PC after the test is complete. Once the test is completed, the SmartPill Data Receiver is connected to the system computer using the SmartPill Docking Station. The Docking Station features an industry standard USB type 2.0 interface that is used to transfer captured data to the PC for analysis and data reconstruction using SmartPill MotiliGI. This analysis can be performed at the convenience of your physician, in a single session or during multiple sessions. This is all done without you being present. The SmartPill MotiliGI Software comes pre-installed and features a graphical user interface. MotiliGI receives and processes data from the SmartPill Data Receiver, stores the data in a file on the system PC, provides a test summary and report, graphs for display purposes, and shows the data values captured during the SmartPill test. The SmartPill GI Monitoring System is equipped with a personal Laptop Computer, which hosts SmartPill MotiliGI software and supports communication between MotiliGI and the SmartPill Data Receiver and Docking Station. Finally, the SmartPill Activation Fixture contains powerful magnets and is used to activate and deactivate the SmartPill pH.p Capsule.

So, this "pill" measures pressure, pH and temperature from within a patient's GI tract, providing discreet transit times for gastric emptying, combined small and large bowel, and total transit times. It also characterizes pressure patterns and provides motility indices for the antrum and duodenum. If I do say so myself, that's one SmartPill!