Tiny Capsule Obtains Samples Of Intestine

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30560, 1 October 1964, Page 7

Tiny Capsule Obtains Samples Of Intestine

A tiny capsule which, swallowed by a patient with a suspected digestive abnormality, can take a sample of the gut wall at any desired location, has arrived at the Christchurch Hospital. Techniques associated with the use of the equipment will be introduced to the board’s physicians by one of them who recently spent three months in Sydney learning the techniques at the Gastroenterological Unit of the Prince Alfred Hospital. He was assisted in making his visit by a study grant from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. The capsule, which is of stainless steel, is about twofifths of an inch in diameter by about two-thirds Of an inch long, is fixed to the end of a pliable plastic tube. The plastic contains a material which is opaque to X-rays, so that the progress of the capsule may be followed by radiography. The top end of the tube is attached in use to the nozzle of an ordinary medical syringe. In the side of the capsule is a small circular opening (port) about an eighth of an inch across, and just Inside the port is a tiny knife on a spring. When the capsule is in position, the plunger of the syringe is pulled out. This creates suction in the tube and a tiny section of the bowel lining is pulled into the port; the knife then automatically shoots across the port and cuts off the section. The capsule is retrieved by pulling on the tube, and the!

bowel section is examined under the microscope. Samples may be taken in this way from any part of the stomach or the small intestine, the procedure taking normally not more than an hour unless the area to be sampled is very far down the bowel. The technique is intended to assist diagnosis where it is suspected that the gut is not as efficient as it should be in absorbing foods — either foods in general or some particular component, for example proteins. When the patient has been put on treatment, a repeat sample of intestine can be obtained to assess progress. Although other New Zealand centres have had the new equipment for some time, the only method available until now in Christchurch of obtaining samples of a patient’s small intestine has been to carry out an abdominal operation. The physician introducing the capsule says that, in his experience, patients “sampled” by the new method have had, at the most, a little discomfort for a few hours, and there have been no serious complications. The capsule was developed by Colonel W. H. Crosby, chief of the Walter Reed Institute of Medical Research, Washington. The equipment now in Christchurch was imported from the United States.