Capsule Cameras

I remember the wonder of capsule-sized temperature transmitters !!

Now look what they are doing : **LINK**

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cameras-inside-edible-pills-will-photograph-early-signs-of-cancer-8qbsg8kvw

We have lived in remarkable times.

MichaelG.

Hi MichaelG, they were just talking about them on Morning Live on BBC 1.

Regards nick.

Hardly brand new stuff.

I remember when the wife used to watch Richard & Judy that Richard swallowed one and featured the results on their show.

I think somebody put themselves on YouTube doing it a few years ago as well.

Probably just become cost effective for the NHS to start using them, when new technology first appears it is invariably very expensive until volume production brings down the cost: I think this innovation will undoubtedly save many lives, and save the embarrassment of being subjected to colonoscopies, don’t ask how I know they can be embarrassing. Dave W

When I had to have one done what was most bizarre was that it was a Dr who actually carried it out - and him sitting there feeding the 'hosepipe' in and out dressed in a very smart three piece suit just seemed wrong!

.

True ... But my point was that in my brief lifetime we have gone from a capsule temperature transmitter [via Raquel Welch in the Fantastic Voyage] to a flush-away camera that’s viable as routine investigative tool.

I started the day happier.

MichaelG.

Michael.

My comment was certainly not intended to put down your link this morning because I thoroughly enjoy looking at your online discoveries,

Generally I enjoy reading about the amazing advances in technology.

I was just rather amused that the media and NHS appeared to have caught up with this after so much time.

hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

 V8.

Edited By V8Eng on 11/03/2021 11:29:18

Here’s a recent report, with some amazing 3D reconstructions from the imaging: **LINK**

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62935-7

MichaelG.

V8Eng -

Might you have done the NHS a disservice there by implying it being slow to catch on?

It won't have started using them until certain they are effective and above all safe, and as Samsaranda points out, economical.

This development is good news from an angle no-one picked up. Apart from the damage to the Dignitatum Majoris, a colonoscopy is invasive and does incur the risk of puncturing the colon. It says, with numbers, on the leaflet with the bowel-cancer screening kit.

I think I remember reading that the best way to detect abnormal colons is by a virtual reality walk through from a 3D reconstruct generated by body scanner. The advantages of 'swallowable' cameras is getting to the entire digestive tract. endoscopes can only get so far.

Medical imaging has to rank as one of the major leaps forward in health not just in diagnostics but without it you just cannot do keyhole surgery and you are back to cracking cests and huge abdominal incisions. Old style surgery did more damage getting in and out than the actual work that needed doing once the surgeon was in there with the corrospondingly lone recovery times.

regards Martin

I wonder how big these things are?

I have had an endoscope down the throat twice successfully, and the third time a failure - apparently I was fighting them despite being sedated. I understand that between the first two and the attempted third, the sedative used was weakened for medical reasons which may be why I ended up fighting it. A pill, providing it's not too large would have been helpful.

In the end, I had to have a barium meal (drink) and an x-ray which revealed a rather large gallstone and a subsequent operation, keyhole but very nearly a slash job due to its size. As it was, the operation took twice as long as it should have done.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

p.s.I've also had a sigmoidoscopy - camera up the bum. Performed by a nurse practioner with another nurse holding my hand. I found it quite interesting because I could see the vdu and hence my own backside & insides! Not a usual perspective.

Reminds me of the joke about the bloke who swallowed a glass eye and sometime later had a serious blockage. The doctors decided on an endoscopy to find out the problem and in consequence discovered an unwinking eye staring back at them from the depths. "You can trust us you know" came the simultaneous cry from the medics.

:O)

Martin

Edited By Martin Kyte on 12/03/2021 14:27:35

Wonder no more, Peter: **LINK**

https://www.medtronic.com/covidien/en-us/products/capsule-endoscopy/pillcam-sb-3-system.html

MichaelG.

Michael,

A quick glance and it does not state the actual dimensions. or if it did, then I missed it.

Peter

Perhaps you could try something longer than a quick glance, Peter

... This is only one click away from where you landed

... click ORDER INFORMATION

.

.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 12/03/2021 16:16:52

I had all four cameras bum, gullit, nose to check throught and the pill camera all negative thank God.

Thanks Michael,

I admit I did not look under Ordering Information since I have no intention of ordering any!

Anyway, daft as it may seem, I won't be swallowing anything that size!

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw