Tethered capsule endomicroscopy enables less invasive imaging of gastrointestinal tract microstructure.

TLDR: Tethered capsule endomicroscopy is introduced, which involves swallowing an optomechanically engineered pill that captures cross-sectional microscopic images of the gut wall at 30 μm × 7 μm resolution as it travels through the digestive tract.

Abstract: Here, we introduce “tethered capsule endomicroscopy,” that involves swallowing an optomechanically-engineered pill that captures cross-sectional, 30 μm (lateral) × 7 μm (axial) resolution, microscopic images of the gut wall as it travels through the digestive tract. Results in human subjects show that this technique rapidly provides three-dimensional, microstructural images of the upper gastrointestinal tract in a simple and painless procedure, opening up new opportunities for screening for internal diseases. Diseases of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract are commonly diagnosed by endoscopy, where a flexible video-imaging probe is advanced through a natural orifice into the luminal digestive organs. If an abnormal region is identified, endoscopic biopsy forceps are used to extract a small amount of tissue from the suspect area. The biopsy is then processed and reviewed under a microscope by a pathologist who renders the final diagnosis. It is estimated that approximately 15 million such biopsies are excised and analyzed every year in the United States 1 .