Ingestible Sensors

Abstract

Ingestible sensing capsules are fast emerging as a critical technology that has the ability to greatly impact health, nutrition, and clinical areas. These ingestible devices are noninvasive and hence are very attractive for customers. With widespread access to smart phones connected to the Internet, the data produced by this technology can be readily seen and reviewed online, and accessed by both users and physicians. The outputs provide invaluable information to reveal the state of gut health and disorders as well as the impact of food, medical supplements, and environmental changes on the gastrointestinal tract. One unique feature of such ingestible sensors is that their passage through the gut lumen gives them access to each individual organ of the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, ingestible sensors offer the ability to gather images and monitor luminal fluid and the contents of each gut segment including electrolytes, enzymes, metabolites, hormones, and the microbial communities. As such, an incredible wealth of knowledge regarding the functionality and state of health of individuals through key gut biomarkers can be obtained. This Review presents an overview of the gut structure and discusses current and emerging digestible technologies. The text is an effort to provide a comprehensive overview of ingestible sensing capsules, from both a body physiology point of view as well as a technological view, and to detail the potential information that they can generate.

A human pilot trial of ingestible electronic capsules capable of sensing different gases in the gut

“…T he development of ingestible sensors offers significant opportunities in medical diagnostics and the monitoring of the human body 1 . In contrast to wearable sensors, which are mostly limited to contact with the skin, ingestible sensors can be immersed in the gut, an environment in which the concentrations of chemicals exchanged by our body are high 1,2 .…”

“…In contrast to wearable sensors, which are mostly limited to contact with the skin, ingestible sensors can be immersed in the gut, an environment in which the concentrations of chemicals exchanged by our body are high 1,2 . However, the field of ingestible sensors remains a relatively underdeveloped area of technology, though advances in electronics and sensors now provides a base for creating reliable, safe, low-cost and durable ingestible chemical sensors.…”

“…However, the field of ingestible sensors remains a relatively underdeveloped area of technology, though advances in electronics and sensors now provides a base for creating reliable, safe, low-cost and durable ingestible chemical sensors. Commercial ingestible sensors are currently mainly limited to pH and pressure profilers, medication monitoring tools, and esophageal optical coherence tomography monitoring using tethered capsules 1,3,4 . In order to develop powerful ingestible capsules that can sense the chemical components of the gut, a first step is to identify the right target analytes of the gut, as certain gas constituents have been identified as efficient biomarkers that contain a plethora of information about the health of our bodies [5][6][7][8] .…”

“…Being able to accurately measure the gastrointestinal gases should provide unique insight into the functionality of microbiota, and may enable the development of new diagnostic, therapeutic and monitoring procedures. Food intake has been strongly linked to gas production and an accurate gas-sensing device could help in designing functional foods, leading to better colonic health and understanding of the of food on our bodies 1,5,12,20,21 . A variety of methods have previously been used to measure and assess gases of the gut.…”

“…These capsules measured gut H 2 (with a cross talk to CH 4 , CO 2 ) and showed patterns similar to previous post mortem measurements in animals 27 . Here we report a human pilot trial of more advanced gas capsules, which incorporate electronic components for measuring H 2 , CO 2 and O 2 , and can assess gas profile changes in response to A human pilot trial of ingestible electronic capsules capable of sensing different gases in the gut Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh 1 . The gas selectivity and sensitivity are obtained by modulating the heating elements of the sensors and by continuous sampling at different operating temperatures.…”