The human digestive tract has a lining that prevents harmful materials, such as bacteria, from getting absorbed into the bloodstream. When this mucosal barrier is damaged, toxins and other harmful material leak into the underlying tissue, causing a variety of health problems. The weakening of this barrier is attributed to a wide range of inflammatory bowel diseases, leading to increased permeability of the walls.
Even though methods like endoscopy can offer a look at the gut health, there are two major hassles with such an approach. First, these methods are invasive, don’t offer a complete visual analysis, and require a visit to a hospital. Moreover, they don’t offer a real-time view of gut health and the accompanying risks to physicians.
What if an ingestible wireless capsule did the job? That’s exactly what experts at the University of Maryland have developed. The team has created what they call an ingestible bioimpedance sensing capsule for monitoring the internal gut health. It could very well push us beyond wearable health sensing.
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How this capsule works?
The capsule comes embedded with a flexible, four-probe sensor coated with a conductive polymer layer. The device measures change in the impedance levels within and sends the information in real-time through Bluetooth connectivity.
The onboard lithium-manganese dioxide is claimed to offer up to 29 hours of real-time gut analysis activity. As for the capsule itself, it’s a 3D-printed module that is roughly 14 millimeters in diameter and about 28 millimeters in length.
To assist with quick diagnosis, the device wirelessly transmits data and features an LED light that activates to show changes in permeability levels inside the gut.
During their tests with mice, the ingestible capsule was able to successfully differentiate between healthy and damaged gastrointestinal tissue. It was able to detect subtle vibrations in the gut wall permeability, which is a sign of inflammatory bowel disease.
A big breakthrough
The team says their ingestible sensor can even sense mild cases of internal gut inflammation with high sensitivity and stability. “We validate that the sensor can differentiate healthy and permeable tissues at benchtop and following integration with the capsule device,” writes the team.
The experts are now focused on design optimizations to begin clinical tests and move ahead with human trials. The overarching goal is to enable early detection of gut disease and open the doors for more personalized treatment in a non-invasive fashion.
“This work signifies major progress towards the use of non-invasive bioimpedance sensing as a diagnostic tool in ingestible technology and leaky gut identification,” says the research paper published in the Microsystems & Nanoengineering journal.
Notably, the folks over at University of Maryland are exploring numerous other ingestible capsule projects for health and wellness analysis. These include a research documented method for targeted drug delivery, and another capsule-based method for gas detection.