Original articleExperimental endoscopyActive locomotion of a paddling-based capsule endoscope in an in vitro and in vivo experiment (with videos)
Section snippets
In vitro experiment
To investigate the high performance of locomotion, an in vitro test was done with a silicone tube that does not yield elastic deformation against paddles of the locomotive CE. This model enables the locomotive CE to move without losing friction. The silicone tube, which had a length of 50 cm, an inner diameter of 18 mm, and a maximum slope angle of 27.5°, was laid on a planar surface (Fig. 3). The locomotive CE was inserted into the end of the tube and allowed to move forward by a
In vitro experiment
In the silicon tube, the locomotive CE stably advanced from one end to the other. The elapsed time was 50 seconds for a 50-cm-long tube, and the calculated average velocity was 10 mm/s (60 cm/min).
Ex vivo experiment
The locomotive CE stably moved forward inside the extracted porcine colon without a stop (Video 1, available online at www.giejournal.org). When the slope angle was 27.5°, the elapsed time was 56 seconds for a 35-cm-long path. When the slope angle was 37.5°, the elapsed time was 101 seconds for a
Discussion
Many research groups have performed various trials to develop a CE that is capable of active locomotion and have found many issues that need to be addressed beforehand. The first purpose of CE with active locomotion is to examine the esophagus, stomach, small bowel, and large bowel. Standard endoscopy such as EGD, enteroscopy, and colonoscopy are excellent tools to examine the GI tract, but they need GI endoscopists' physical maneuvering and patients' patience. Recently, CEs for the esophagus,
Acknowledgments
The authors give special thanks to Young Soo Park, MD, and Chang Woo Gham, MD.
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DISCLOSURE: All authors disclosed no financial relationships relevant to this publication. (Research support for this study was provided by the Intelligent Microsystem Center, which carries out one of the 21st Century Frontier R&D Projects sponsored by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea.)
If you want to chat with an author of this article, you may contact Dr Bang at [email protected].
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The first two authors contributed equally to this work.