The PillCam, Taking The Pains Out Of Oesophagial Photography

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By David Ponce

Well, it looks like I completely missed the boat on this one, and you’re going to have to digest news that is at least a year old, but darn it, it’s worth a mention. You see, when something isn’t right in your digestive tract (say, ulcers), the usual method to give the lesions a look was with an endoscope. That meant a nice plastic tube down your throat, which isn’t always pleasant.

With the PillCam from Given Imaging, now, all you have to do is swallow a pill-sized camera while lying down. The lying down part is to ensure that it doesn’t travel too fast down your oesophagus. While its there, the pill will flash 14 times per second, each time taking a snapshot of the inside of your food tube. When you’re done, you simply poop it out.

I like it so much, I might just go ahead and give me an ulcer, for kicks. Oh and please, no letters about how ulcers are horrible and I wouldn’t like it if I had one, and I shouldn’t make jokes like that, and how can I be so insensitive, etc. I know.

It’s a joke.

[The PillCam Website (with pictures of insides)] VIA [Pixel Y Dixel]

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