Breakthrough for video-pill cancer imaging

Researchers from the University of Glasgow have found a way to make swallowable cameras more effective at detecting cancers of the throat and gut. In recent years, tiny sensing systems small enough for patients to swallow have proven to be a valuable clinical alternative to more intrusive imaging methods such as endoscopes. Until now, the systems, often known as video-pill, have relied on illuminating patients' innards using a small light source, restricting clinicians to conclusions based on what they can see in the spectrum of visible light. In a new paper published today (Friday 18 December) in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from the University's School of Engineering describe how they have used fluorescent light for the first time to expand the diagnostic capabilities of the video-pill. Flurorescence imaging is already a powerful diagnostic tool in medicine, capable of clearly identifying in patients the rich blood supplies which support cancers and help them to grow, but which can be missed by examination under visible light. However, past fluorescence imaging technologies have been expensive, bulky and consume substantial power, confining the technique to laboratories and hospital examination rooms. Using an advanced semiconductor single-pixel imaging technique, the researchers have managed to create flurorescence imaging in a small pill form for the first time.