idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
Many patients dread the thought of having to swallow tubes to give their doctors a look at their gastrointestinal tracts. Long waits caused by the lack of specialists offering the procedure make this experience even worse. Working with two dedicated partners, Fraunhofer IZM is researching a completely tubeless technology in the nuEndo project supported by Germany’s Ministry of Education and Research. Their vision: a simple-to-swallow capsule, equipped with cameras and guided by an external magnetic system.
Gastroscopies remain risky procedures that need to be conducted by highly qualified and sought-after specialists after years of training. The natural gag reflex can mean that patients injure the lining of their esophagus when having to swallow the traditional tubes, and bleeding or secondary infections are not rare occurrences. The procedure is often done under full anesthesia, which in itself entails many, sometimes lethal dangers.
To combat these risks, the partners on the nuEndo project have come up with a special capsule that may replace the endoscopy tubes used in traditional gastroscopic procedures with a completely wireless technology. An external magnetic system is used to guide the capsule through the patient’s body, from where it transmits live images captured with its built-in sensors.
One particular benefit of the new method: By contrast to the usual gastroscopic tubes, the capsules can be administered by medical staff without anesthesia. After swallowing the capsule, it takes approx. 20 seconds for the high-tech system to reach the stomach and start its diagnostic work. Certain conditions might still make traditional gastroscopy inevitable because of the established technology’s higher resolution. The gastroscopic capsules do, however, promise to shorten the process by cutting out long waiting times before a first diagnosis can be made and any further analysis or treatment introduced.
Professor Dr. Jörg Albert, Head Physician at the Robert Bosch Hospital of Stuttgart in Germany and clinical associate partner of the nuEndo project, explains: “The noninvasive and painless method makes this new form of gastroscopy an easier choice for patients whose symptoms might not yet be severe enough to motivate them to undergo traditional gastroscopic analysis. They simply have to swallow a tiny capsule and can then relax and let the procedure run its course. This means that the nuEndo system promises to improve early recognition of many conditions, make treatment more effective, and help monitor the recovery process.”
As leading experts for the miniaturization of electronic systems, the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration was entrusted with the challenge of scaling down the capsule. Another partner in the project carefully coordinated by Ovesco Endoscopy AG is SENSODRIVE GmbH, a spinoff of the German Aerospace Center, who contributed the external magnetic controls to manage the analytical procedure. The project has received approx. €1.7 million in funding from the German Ministry of Education and Research in support of the innovative research undertaken by the commercial partners and will run until 2022.
Manuel Seckel
+49 30 46403-740
manuel.seckel@izm.fraunhofer.de
https://www.izm.fraunhofer.de/en/news_events/tech_news/magnet-guided-camera-caps...
The future of medicine: A miniature camera capsule makes gastroscopic diagnostics easier to swallow ...
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