The Camera Pill: A View of Your Small Intestine from the Inside

Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas is one of the first hospitals in the nation to use the M2A Capsule Endoscope, or "camera pill," an ingestible capsule that passes naturally through the digestive tract while capturing video images. The pill allows doctors to see the entire 21 feet of the small intestine.

The pill can help detect gastrointestinal problems that affect some 70 million Americans, including obscure bleeding, Crohn's disease, malabsorption, and intestinal tumors, which can often go undiagnosed.

Once you swallow the "pill," it transmits video images to a recorder belt that you wear. Eight hours after swallowing the capsule, you return the belt, and your physician reviews the images. The capsule is disposable and is excreted naturally.



In the case of Ron Gaswirth, a 57-year-old Dallas attorney, the easy to swallow capsule proved lifesaving. Gaswirths doctor discovered cancer on his liver. It could be removed, but doctors knew it had spread from another, hidden tumor. They searched, but two endoscopies, two colonoscopies, an MRI, a CT scan, a 3-D CT scan and a nuclear medicine scan early this year turned up nothing. He was scheduled for exploratory surgery when doctors recommended this new, highly specialized FDA-approved procedure, which can be used when other diagnostic tests are unable to detect the problem.

Gaswirth swallowed a small capsule, about the size of a large vitamin, that contained a tiny video camera, a strobe light, two batteries and a transmitter. As the capsule passed through the digestive system, the camera recorded color images twice each second and transmitted them to a recording device he wore around his waist. After about eight hours, the capsule was excreted naturally and Gaswirth returned the recording device to the doctor.

We get about 50,000 color photos, says Daniel DeMarco, M.D., medical director of endoscopy on the medical staff at Baylor University Medical Center (Baylor Dallas). He then viewed the images on a computer to look for signs of problems. The computer displayed the eight hours of photos in about two hours, allowing Dr. DeMarco to view them almost like a motion picture.

Gaswirth says, At 11:45 p.m., Dr. DeMarco called and said, Mr. Gaswirth, we found your tumor. Surgeons removed the tumor, and a repeat of the capsule procedure in June confirmed that his small intestine remains cancer-free.