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A CAMERA the size of a toffee could soon be journeying though your gut, on
the lookout for problems.

Currently, if doctors want to check for ulcers, for example, they have to
push a long endoscope down a patient鈥檚 throat to see the top part, or through
their rectum to view the lower end. It鈥檚 not pleasant, and also misses a large
chunk in the middle, inside the small intestine.

Now Paul Swain and his colleagues at the Royal London Hospital have come up
with a more effective alternative that鈥檚 as easy as taking a pill鈥攁 mini
camera that the patient swallows. It measures just 11 by 30 millimetres, and
causes no sensation once swallowed.

As well as a tiny video camera, the capsule has a light source and a radio
transmitter that sends pictures to a recorder carried by the patient. The
capsule takes about 24 hours to pass though the gut.

鈥淲ith this device we can get a wonderful view of the small bowel, and it鈥檚
completely painless,鈥� says Swain. The device still needs a few technical tweaks
before Swain鈥檚 team seeks approval for its use in hospitals in Europe and the
US.