Echosens is a medical device company based in Paris, France that’s focused on diagnosing liver disease. Their technology, called FibroScan, uses ultrasonic waves to non-invasively measure the elasticity and absorption of the liver. These measurements can inform medical care teams about the amount of scar tissue and fatty content in a patient& (Read more...)
Tag: GI
Lumendi Gets FDA Clearance for New Endolumenal Interventional Knife
Lumendi, an English firm, won FDA clearance to introduce its DiLumen Ik endolumenal interventional knife. The single-use monopolar device is used for surgical dissections, performing cuts, and cauterizing of tissues of the gastrointestinal tract. To help perform many procedures that require a section to be elevated from the surrounding tissue, the (Read more...)
NvisionVLE System FDA Cleared to Analyze Pancreas and Bile Duct
NinePoint Medical, based out of Bedford, Massachusetts, won FDA clearance for its NvisionVLE Imaging System to be used in assessing the pancreas and bile duct. The system can image tissue around a catheter tip up to 3 mm below the surface. It does so thanks to a rotating light beam emanating from the catheter as […]
Shear-Thinning Gel Makes for Easier Polyp Removals
When removing pre-cancerous polyps from the colon, physicians typically inject saline into the tissue below the polyps to raise them and make them easier to access. However, saline drains away quickly, requiring precise timing and repeat injections, among other difficulties. Now, scientists at MIT have developed an injectable material that can be u (Read more...)
Diagnostic Pill Samples Bacteria While Traveling Inside Gut
The microbiome inside our gut contains a wide variety of bacterial species, some of which are a source of disease. Currently, only the lower intestine can be sampled non-invasively to learn about the bacterial flora within, so there’s actually little knowledge about what goes on higher up the GI tract. Researchers at Tufts University have [&h (Read more...)
Self-Powered Microrobots Deliver Drugs to Tumors in the Gut
Treating tumors within the GI system is often a difficult challenge, frequently requiring invasive surgery. Scientists at Caltech have now developed self-propelled microrobots that can deliver drugs to precise spots within the intestines, and that can let clinicians monitor and control their activity. Besides drug delivery, the microrobots have the (Read more...)
CompCyst Tool Developed to Identify Precancerous Cysts
Researchers from Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have developed a new computational and biomolecular tool, dubbed CompCyst, that can identify precancerous pancreatic cysts. The technology provides a new method for reliably identifying cancer-causing cysts from those that are not cancer-causing. The teams work demonstrates that in over half of pa (Read more...)
Robot Navigates Tiny Ultrasound Pill Through Colon
While endoscopes give physicians a view into the interior of the GI tract, they are limited in the areas that they can reach and the imaging they can provide. Miniaturized imaging devices in the form of swallowable electronic pills have been around for a few years now. They move through the entirety of the GI […]
Ultra-Thin Probe Assesses Tissues Deep Within Lungs
Assessing the health of tissues deep inside the body is a major need and challenge in medicine. Imaging modalities such as MRI, CT, and ultrasound provide very little information about the composition and environment of tissues being examined. Now, researchers at the University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University, and Bath University, all in the U (Read more...)
Electronic Device Cleared by FDA to Treat Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a complex condition with a number of potential causes, symptoms, and treatment options. While experienced in the gut, IBS often seems to be related to a poorly functioning nervous system. Specifically, the signals that the gut sends can be perceived by the brain as being abnormal, resulting in sensations of [ (Read more...)
Pure-Vu GEN2 FDA Cleared to Clean Colons During Colonoscopy Exams
Motus GI, a company now headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has won FDA clearance for the latest version of its Pure-Vu colon cleansing system. Designed for use during colonoscopies, the system is designed to clear out debris left in the colon that can hinder proper visualization of potential polyps. Patients are advised to fast and [&hellip (Read more...)
Scope Pro-tech Coming Out to Protect Endoscope Tips
Meditech Endoscopy, a company out of Essex, England, just won FDA clearance for its Scope Pro-tech endoscopic tip protector. The device is designed to protect the optics found on the tips of endoscopes while they’re in storage or when they’re moved from place to place. The design of the Scope Pro-tech is such that air […]
Intestine Chip to Study Human-Microbiome Interactions
Researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute have developed a microfluidic chip that allows bacteria and human epithelial cells to be co-cultured. The device will allow researchers to study how the gut and bacteria interact, helping them to identify the role of the microbiome in health and disease. With reported involvement in a huge array of [&hellip (Read more...)
PUMA-G System for Placing Gastronomy Feeding Tubes at Point of Care Cleared by FDA
Percutaneous gastrostomy feeding tubes are placed by making a puncture through the abdominal wall and into the stomach. This requires an operating room and all that that entails, including a surgeon, anesthesia, imaging equipment, and associated clinicians. Now a new system, made by CoapTech, a Baltimore, MD firm, has been cleared by the FDA that [ (Read more...)
Self-Inflating Swallowable Capsule for Weight Management
Researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have developed a swallowable self-inflating capsule, which enlarges within the stomach under the influence of a hand-held magnet. By filling a portion of the stomach, the balloon induces a sense of fullness, helping obese patients to reduce the amount they eat. The capsule is conceived (Read more...)
PlasmaTYPHOON Endoscope Drying and Storage Device: Interview with Dr. Daniel Vinteler, CEO and Founder of PlasmaBiotics
PENTAX Medical, a global medical technology developer originally founded in Japan, provides the PlasmaTYPHOON Endoscope Drying and Storage Device through its controlling interest in PlasmaBiotics, a company based in France. The system aims to significantly reduce the risk of bacterial contamination of endoscopy equipment through a drying procedure (Read more...)
Ultra Cheap Endoscope to Make Cancer Screenings More Common
Conventional endoscopes can get quite pricey these days, sometimes costing more than $100,000 a set. Moreover, they’re expensive to maintain because of intense cleaning regimens that are required to prevent transmission of infections. Engineers at the University of Leeds in the UK are working on bringing the price of endoscopes closer to $50 (Read more...)
TransPyloric Shuttle, a Smart Gastric Balloon, Approved by FDA
Gastric balloons are popular among many people working to lose a great deal of weight. They create the sensation of a full stomach, but they’re typically pretty dumb devices whose only task is to take up space. The TransPyloric Shuttle from BAROnova, a company based in San Carlos, California, resembles intragastric baloons but works quite [&h (Read more...)
Microbial Signature for Colorectal Cancer Identified Using Machine Learning
Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, the University of Trento in Italy, and other international collaborators leveraged a machine learning algorithm to identify a subset of gut bacteria associated with colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer worldwide. They performed a meta-analysis of ei (Read more...)
PlasmaTYPHOON Makes Sure Endoscopes are Dry and Hygienic
PENTAX Medical, a part of HOYA Group, has unveiled a new endoscope processing and storage solution that helps to eliminate any chance of bacterial infections. In the last few years endoscopes have been identified as common vectors through which bacteria spread from patient to patient, so new endoscope designs and ways to clean them are […]