A miniature camera the size of a pill, which travels through your digestive system taking thousands of pictures, is now being used for the first time on Utah patients.
Science Specialist Ed Yeates looks at what doctors and patients are calling "the fantastic voyage."
Early this morning, 52-year-old Anna Evans swallowed a one-inch long capsule containing a miniature camera.
Once activated and launched, the device called the M2A travels down the esophagus, through the stomach, past the colon and finally into the critical 24 feet of the small intestine.
It snaps up to 60-thousand flash pictures with four miniature strobe lights every two seconds.
Brent Anderson / Endoscopic Nurse: "I WAS VERY SURPRISED. I THOUGHT THE COMPANY WAS SHOWING US THE VERY BEST OF THEIR IMAGES, AND AFTER GETTING THE TECHNOLOGY HERE AND SEEING THEM, THEY TRULY ARE AS GOOD AS WHAT THEY SAY."
KURT BODILY, M.D. / TIMPANOGOS REGIONAL HOSPITAL: "IT IS EASY TO SWALLOW THE PILL, SUPRISINGLY. PATIENTS CAN RESUME NORMAL ACTIVITY. THEY CAN GO BACK TO WORK. THE ONLY INCONVENIENCE IS THE SHORT TIME THEY SPEND WITH US WHILE STARTING THE TEST AND THEN COMPLETING IT AT THE END."
During Anna's "fantastic voyage" the camera transmits the pictures to a hard drive attached to a nylon belt. She wears it for about eight hours.
Once the voyage is completed, the disposable camera simply passes out of her body and is flushed away.
Anna Evans / Patient: "I WOULD MUCH RATHER SWALLOW THIS LITTLE-- OR RATHER BIG-- CAPSULE, THAN TO HAVE SURGERY. MY OPTIONS WERE NOT VERY GOOD AT THIS POINT. NOW WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO FIND OUT WHAT'S WRONG."
The M2A is the ultimate "snoop" of the small intestine. It can show why a patient, like Anna is bleeding from the intestinal tract, without the need for exploratory surgery.
DR. BODILY: "AND I THINK IT WILL ALSO END UP REPLACING OTHER ENDOSCOPIC EXAMS OF THE SMALL INTESTINE, TO SOME DEGREE."
ED YEATES, SCIENCE SPECIALIST: "THE CAMERA CAPSULE WAS ONLY APPROVED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION NINE MONTHS AGO. "
Timpanogos Regional Hospital here is the first in Utah to try the M2A.
The procedure costs about 15-hundred dollars. Timpanogos Regional has used it on 18 patients, so far.
