Tethered Endoscope
3/20/2008 Alexandria, LA Farrah Reyna NewsChannel5 (kalb.com) Cancer of the esophagus is one of the fastest growing cancers in the United States. That’s why researchers in Seattle are hoping new technology in the form of a tethered endoscope will make screening for throat cancer cheaper and faster, and more likely to be covered by all insurance companies. Biomedical engineer Eric Seibel is about to swallow a small camera the size of pill. Each swallow of water is pushing a one-pixel camera lower into his esophagus. A tether controls where it goes as it takes 30 color pictures per second on its way to his stomach. He said, “We have a little scanner and we scan very low-powered laser light to get the high resolution imaging.” Researchers believe this new endoscope will be cheaper to use and more effective at screening the digestive tract for pre-cancerous conditions like Barrett’s esophagus –or- throat cancer. Doctor Seibel said, “To look for something right above your stomach at the bottom of your esophagus, that’s where you get heart burn and that’s where a lot of the esophageal cancers start. And what you would like to have is a little tether and a camera to look right at that point, make that diagnosis, confirm that diagnosis and then just pull it out.” Normal endoscopes require patients to be sedated. This new technology is faster and cheaper because patients are awake. Karen Murray, a gastroenterologist said, “If someone is having a lot of heartburn pain and [...]