Photo Capsule to Give Drs Inside View of Body
By: Charlotte Ames
Updated: October 12, 2012
New research aims to give doctors a unique view inside the human body using a remote-controlled capsule which could find a problem and treat it. A miniaturized doctor and his team swim through a human body to save a life in the sci-fi classic Fantastic Voyage. Decades later, a new swimming pill could give doctors a new way to save lives.
Noby Hata, co-inventor of the swimming endoscopic capsule said, "this capsule can stop or move or aim at the disease lesions so you can actually try to cure the lesion."
The capsule is designed to be swallowed like a pill. Doctors will be able to control the camera magnetically from outside using an MRI machine's magnetic signals. There is a coil to induce the current remotely.
Hata says the MRI works much like a GPS. "You will see the cross section of the body and also the little capsule in the middle and you can navigate this capsule using this map as guidance." So far, he's successfully tested a prototype of the capsule in a fish tank inside an MRI machine. The goal is to one day be able to deliver drugs or laser treatments directly to tumors or injuries in the digestive track.
Dr. Kunal Jajoo, associate physician in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital believes this could change the way colonoscopies are performed. "It's an amazing advance to be able to steer something that small within the body and really direct it to areas that might need therapy or biopsy or the like."
The inventor of the capsule says MRI machines are already in place in hospitals all over the country. Once the swimming capsule is produced, it can be easily distributed without a great deal of expense.
Noby Hata, co-inventor of the swimming endoscopic capsule said, "this capsule can stop or move or aim at the disease lesions so you can actually try to cure the lesion."
The capsule is designed to be swallowed like a pill. Doctors will be able to control the camera magnetically from outside using an MRI machine's magnetic signals. There is a coil to induce the current remotely.
Hata says the MRI works much like a GPS. "You will see the cross section of the body and also the little capsule in the middle and you can navigate this capsule using this map as guidance." So far, he's successfully tested a prototype of the capsule in a fish tank inside an MRI machine. The goal is to one day be able to deliver drugs or laser treatments directly to tumors or injuries in the digestive track.
Dr. Kunal Jajoo, associate physician in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital believes this could change the way colonoscopies are performed. "It's an amazing advance to be able to steer something that small within the body and really direct it to areas that might need therapy or biopsy or the like."
The inventor of the capsule says MRI machines are already in place in hospitals all over the country. Once the swimming capsule is produced, it can be easily distributed without a great deal of expense.
