Targeting Barrett’s
esophagus and gastrointestinal (GI) tract diagnosis, Dr. Gary Tearney and
Michalina Gora and their colleagues from Wellman Center for Photomedicine at MGH have
developed a wired capsule imager to screen a patent’s esophagus. OCT has been
proved to be effective on imaging esophageal carcinoma. The device involves optical
frequency domain OCT technology — a rapidly rotating laser tip emitting a beam
of near-infrared light and sensors that record light reflected back from the
esophageal lining.
The device provides
painless (if their report is true), well-tolerated, accurate, and inexpensive
method for screening and monitoring of disease progression in the upper
gastrointestinal tract. To date, they have performed trials on 40 patients,
imaging esophageal disorders and the first portion of small intestine
(duodenum) to show the application for diagnosis. Multiple journal papers have
been published in 2013 and 2014 about the progress and applications of this
technology.
By manipulating the plastic ball attached to
the flexible tether (lower, right hand) the system operator can control the
position of the endomicroscopy capsule in a patient’s esophagus (credit:
Michalina Gora, PhD and Kevin Gallagher/Wellman Center for Photomedicine,
Massachusetts General Hospital)
Tethered capsule endomicroscopy. (a) Overview of the tethered
capsule endomicroscopy device. (b) Expanded schematic of the
capsule. (Credit: Michalina Gora, PhD and Kevin Gallagher/Wellman Center
for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital)
More reading material regarding this work:
Journal paper: Imaging the Upper
Gastrointestinal Tract in Unsedated Patients Using Tethered Capsule
Endomicroscopy, Gastroenterology.
Vol.145(4), 2013. Tethered capsule endomicroscopy enables less invasive imaging
of gastrointestinal tract microstructure, Nature Medicine, Vol.19(2), 2013.
News when it first came out: http://scitechdaily.com/ingestible-pill-sized-imaging-system-provides-3d-view-of-the-esophageal-wall/
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