Pill Helps Doctors See Digestive Tract

Bush_man10 writes "RedNova is reporting about a pill loaded with technology similar to a digital camera that allows doctors to view more than 50,000 still images captured as it makes the trip through your small intestine. This is a much better alternative than the old fashioned camera on snaking tubes to check for intestinal troubles. All the images are collected wirelessly through a belt you wear while the pill completes it's fantastic voyage."

Really old news.

[Fritzed]

I just have to say that this has to be the oldest story I've seen on slashdot. It has to have been at least 2 years since I read this in Popular Science. Back on subject, it is a nice design, two button batteries and a tiny camera. I do have to wonder, what type of quality the camera gives, I have yet to see any actual pictures from it. -> Fritz

CT colonography (aka "virtual colonoscopy")

[VersedM]

A different minimally invasive test that is likely to have a larger impact on colon cancer screening in developed countries is described in the latest New England Journal of Medicine [nejm.org]

The technique is known as CT colonography and consists of aquiring several hundred CT slices of the abdomen/pelvis then using software to reconstruct the lumen of the colon and fly through it virtual-reality style looking for cancer. The linked study reports that CT colonography in experienced hands is as good as the "gold standard" of colonoscopy, a finding that (if validated in other studies) could mean that hundreds of thousands of people might be able to avoid the scope and get a less invasive CT scan to screen for cancer.

Yea Technology!

[Bowling Moses]

This is so much less nasty than the old way--a number of years ago I had to get my upper GI (mouth to small intestine) checked out and had a more old-fashioned proceedure done. That is, the camera was on a cable about as big around as standard coax cable. The cable was coated with novocane and shoved up my left nostril and down my throat, through the stomach and into the small intestine, about 25 feet worth in all. It was an especially unpleasant experience, but at least the cable didn't have to go the other way...

It also involved choking down about two quarts of a barium sulfate "milkshake," which was extremely dense. After the proceedure was over I was initially confused why the doctor asked how long it would take for me to get home from the hospital. It was much clearer to me why when I got home and made a dash for the can. Extremely dense, that milkshake was!