Cables and bulky heart monitors may soon become part of history as researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology was able to develop an ingestible electronic sensor that can measure heart rate and other vital signs from inside the gut.
In order to determine baseline physiological health, medical professionals initially obtain vital signs such as respiratory rate, heart rate and temperature. Procuring accurate data usually involve the utilization of complex devices that might feel uncomfortable when attached to patients thus, threatening compliance.
Ingestible electronic devices have increased in popularity over the past years. With this, MIT researchers thought of developing a strategy that can empower medical professionals to monitor the patient's vital signs from the inside, particularly in the gastrointestinal tract.
To attain this, the scientists thought of the best way to be successful in this endeavor and decided that listening to the body using a tiny microphone will be the simplest, most effective way.
The researchers then developed a significantly small stethoscope that people can swallow. According to Albert Swiston, a technical staff at Lincoln Laboratory and who is part of the study, the same sensor will be used to obtain two types of data: heart and lung sounds.
To accurately translate the collected information into heart and respiratory rates, the scientists created a signal processing system that is able to differentiate the two sounds, as well as to determine the accompanying noise background generated by the gut and other internal body systems.
The device is so tiny and looks like a multivitamin capsule, which comprised of a tiny microphone and other electronic processing materials that transmit radio signals to an external receiver.
The sensors were tested on pigs and the researchers discovered that it can accurately measure heart and respiratory rates, despite factors such as significant variation in food amounts being digested.
The ingestible device is expected to stay in the gut for one to two days. Patients who require long-term monitoring need to swallow new capsules.
Giovanni Traverso, one of the lead authors and a gastroenterologist at MIT, said that the team hopes to identify pathogens or molecules and deliver the needed drugs such as antibiotics. "This development provides the foundation for that kind of system down the line," he added.
The study was published in the journal PLOS One on Wednesday, Nov. 18.
