Ingestible Camera Visualizes Small Intestine

ROCKVILLE, Maryland—The FDA has approved a tiny ingestible video camera—the Given Diagnostic Imaging System (Given Imaging Ltd)—for use with other endoscopic and radiologic GI tract evaluations, to detect polyps, cancer, or causes of bleeding and anemia in the small intestine.

The system includes a single-use, 11 × 30-mm capsule, known as the M2A, which contains a color video-imaging unit, light source, telemetry transmitter, and battery.

The patient swallows the capsule, which passes through the GI tract and is excreted naturally. A window at one end of the capsule allows the camera to take images of the intestine lining (2 pictures every second) for about 8 hours, long enough to view the entire small intestine but not the whole colon.

Images are sent to a data recorder worn around the patient’s waist and later transferred for viewing to a workstation equipped with the company’s application software.