Blood Content Detecting Capsule

• US 20090124874A1
• Filed: 11/08/2007
• Published: 05/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Medical Systems Corporation (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Gono, Kazuhiro, Suga, Takeshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,162,828 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/341
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14539 for measuring pH
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1459 invasive, e.g. introduced into the body by a catheter A61B5/1464 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6861 Capsules, e.g. for swallowing or implanting

Abstract

A capsule employing components for detecting blood content or hemoglobin concentration within tissue forming a lumen in vivo advantageously permits screening or diagnosis of certain diseases. In one embodiment, the capsule includes a light source for intermittently illuminating a region of tissue and a light detector for receiving interacted light from the tissue and hemoglobin therein. Methods of validating data of interacted light signal are also disclosed. A power conservation method of detecting the blood content values at different rates is further disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for detecting blood content in tissue forming a lumen in an organism comprising the step of:

disposing a capsule in a lumen of a living organism;

detecting by the capsule a characteristic indicative of blood content at at least one location of tissue forming the lumen; and

transmitting a signal based on the detected characteristic to a receiver located external to said organism.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of processing the detected characteristic to determine if the corresponding blood content satisfies a condition.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said condition is a threshold elevated blood content indicative of the likely presence of an abnormality within the region at the at least one tissue location

4. The method of claim 2 wherein said abnormality is a tumor.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of:

repeating the detection step intermittently at different tissue locations; and

adjusting the intermittent interval between detections during the repeating step based on satisfaction of the condition.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

capturing by the capsule an image of the tissue proximate said at least one tissue location.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of:

repeating the image capture step intermittently at different tissue locations; and

adjusting the intermittent interval between image captures during the repeating step based on satisfaction of the condition.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the detection step further comprises the steps of:

illuminating by the capsule the at least one tissue location with light; and

detecting by the capsule interacted light received from said illuminated at least one tissue location.

9. A system for detecting blood content in living tissue comprising:

a capsule disposable in a lumen of a living organism, said capsule comprising a sensor for detecting a characteristic indicative of blood content at a location of tissue forming the lumen and a transmitter; and

a processing unit for receiving a signal transmitted by the capsule transmitter.

10. The system as claimed in claim 9 wherein the capsule further comprises an imaging capture device.

11. The system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the imaging capture device captures images based on said detection signal.

12. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the capsule sensor further comprises:

a light source for illuminating a tissue location; and

a detector for detecting interacted light from the tissue location and for generating a signal indicative of said characteristic.

13. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the capsule sensor further comprises:

a controller coupled to the detector for controlling intervals at which the detector generates the signal indicative of said characteristic.

14. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the system further comprises:

an evaluation unit for producing a control signal based on the signal indicative of said characteristic satisfying a condition, wherein the capsule controller adjusts said intermittent interval for the characteristic detection based on the control signal.

15. The system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the evaluation unit is disposed in said processing unit and the processing unit further comprises a transmitter to transmit the control signal to the capsule controller.

16. The system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the evaluation unit is disposed in said capsule.

17. The system as claimed in claim 9 further comprising:

a data validator, wherein the detector generates a data signal based on said detected characteristic and said validator validates the detection signal.

18. The system as claimed in claim 17, wherein said data validator determines whether a characteristic of said detection signal satisfies a condition.

19. The system as claimed in claim 18, wherein said condition is a threshold.

20. The system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the data validator is disposed in said capsule.

21. The system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the data validator is disposed in said processing unit.

22. A device for indicating blood content of living tissue, comprising:

a receiver for receiving a signal from a capsule disposable in a lumen of a living organism; and

an indicator coupled to the receiver for providing an indication of blood content based on the signal.

23. The device as claimed in claim 22, wherein the indicator is a display.

24. A capsule disposable in a lumen of a living organism capsule comprising:

a sensor for detecting a characteristic indicative of blood content at a location of tissue forming the lumen, said sensor generating a data signal based on said detected characteristic; and

a data validator for validating the data signal by the sensor.

25. The capsule as claimed in claim 24, wherein the sensor comprises a light source for illuminating a tissue location and a detector for detecting interacted light from the tissue location and for generating said data signal.

26. The capsule as claimed in claim 25, wherein the detector detects interacted light from the tissue in a first polarization spectrum and a second perpendicular polarization spectrum.

27. The capsule as claimed in claim 24, wherein said data validator determines whether a characteristic of said detection signal satisfies a condition.

28. The system as claimed in claim 27, wherein said condition is a threshold.

29. The capsule as claimed in claim 24 further comprising a transmitter for transmitting a validated signal from the data validator to a processing unit.

30. The device as claimed in claim 24, further comprising an organ sensor.

31. The device as claimed in claim 30, wherein the data validator generates a signal responsive to said data signal and an output signal from the organ sensor.

32. The capsule as claimed in claim 30, wherein the organ sensor is selected from the group comprising a pH level sensor, color sensor, temperature sensor, time sensor, and pressure sensor.

33. The capsule as claimed in claim 30, wherein the organ sensor is a magnetic sensor whose location is detectable from at least one detector located external to the organism.

34. A validation method for detecting blood content in living tissue comprising the steps of:

generating a plurality of data values corresponding to measurements related to blood content of living tissue, wherein at least one or more of said data values represent invalid measurements;

statistically evaluating the plurality of generated data values relative to a condition; and

validating one or more of said data points based on said statistical evaluation.

35. The method of claim 34 further comprising the step of initiating the validation method upon a first received valid data point.

36. The method as claimed in claim 34, wherein said statistical evaluation is averaging the data values.

37. The method as claimed in claim 34, further comprising the step of displaying a representation of the validated data.

38. The method as claimed in claim 34, wherein the step of generating said plurality of data values is performed by a capsule or an endoscope being disposed in a lumen of a living organism.

39. A method for detecting blood content in living tissue comprising the steps of:

disposing a capsule in a lumen of a living organism,

intermittently measuring by the capsule data useable in determining blood content at a location of tissue forming the lumen;

statistically analyzing the measured data; and

determining valid measured data based on the statistical analysis.

40. The method as claimed in claim 39, wherein the statistically analyzing step further comprises:

comparing the measured data to a threshold value.

41. The method as claimed in claim 40, wherein the threshold value is based on an average of historical values less a determined standard deviation of the historical values.

42. The method as claimed in claim 41, wherein the statistically analyzing step is based on the standard deviation of the data values.

43. The method as claimed in claim 41, wherein the statistically analyzing step is based on a root mean square determination of the data values.

44. The method as claimed in claim 41, wherein the statistically analyzing step is based on a predetermined range of data values.

45. The method as claimed in claim 41, wherein the statistically analyzing step is based on a historically determined range of data values.