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New "Endoscope On a Pill"
ScienceDaily is reporting that a new form of endoscope developed at the University of Washington is more like swallowing a pill than the typical "massive" cable. The pill, complete with a 1.4 mm wide tether, contains a single optical fiber for illumination and six fibers for collecting light. "Once swallowed, an electric current flowing through the UW endoscope causes the fiber to bounce back and forth so that its lone electronic eye sees the whole scene, one pixel at a time. At the same time the fiber spins and its tip projects red, green and blue laser light. The image processing then combines all this information to create a two-dimensional color picture."
I distinctly remember seeing a story about something like this on the Canadian TV show Daily Planet over a year ago. Our host, Jay Ingram, demonstrated it by actually swallowing the pill, and they showed the video on national TV.
I'd post the link, but this doesn't exactly sound like new stuff and I'm at work so I can't do the research. This was back when he was still co-hosting with Natasha Stilwell, which places it between 2004-2006. She's been replaced in the 2006-2007 season.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
Right now, an endoscope requires a general anesthesia, which requires the patient to be monitored for adverse reactions, as well as accompaniment since the patient won't be able/allowed to drive home afterward.
My mom just had one done a few days ago, and she lives alone. The clinic performing it usually has a shuttle to pick up and drop off patients, but it wasn't available that day. She offered to take a cab, but they wouldn't allow it, stating that whoever is picking her up and dropping her off would have to stay there. Luckily, a neighbor was willing to help. (I live a few states away, for those wondering why I wasn't helping her.)
If he wasn't able to help her, she'd have had to reschedule, which would have meant rearranging her work schedule and possibly losing pay if she can't arrange the time off on short notice. If she could have driven herself there and back, she could have scheduled it around work, instead of the other way around.
I wonder how many people aren't able to have procedures like this done because they don't have the time/resources.
I'm not sure how well this will work since you can't take samples of tissue with this device - you need that to confirm your diagnosis of Barrett's and to see if there are any signs of early cancer/dysplasia.
Where you from they call it endo? It's 'Indo,' foo! Either for 'indoor' i.e. hydroponic, or for indica. Kids these days... Although I suppose you could get blunt trauma from screwing up an endo (front-wheelie).
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
But capsule endocsopies already exist.
It's painless, except for the fact that you have to walk around all day with a ginormous fanny pack strapped to your waist and numerous probes glued to your chest. Well, maybe the preparation is the worst part because you have to prepare for it just like a colonoscopy (i.e. drink a gallon...or a half gallon plus some pills if you get the good stuff... of nasty liquid the night before).
The weirdest part of the whole procedure is that they start taking pictures before you swallow it (of course) so when the doctor gets the fanny pack back, he first sees you, then he sees you swallow the pill, then he sees your insides.....all of them.