A tiny swallowable camera-in-a-capsule is more effective than standard imaging methods in identifying intestinal polyps in the small intestine, according to results presented at Digestive Disease Week in Chicago.

Intestinal polyps can become cancerous, and endoscopy procedures like colonoscopy are effective in detecting these growths in the colon. The small intestine, however, is beyond the reach of these instruments so the only way to visualize polyps in this segment of the gut is by barium enema.

That procedure involves filling the intestine with a thick barium fluid, via the rectum, and then taking extensive X-rays to try to see any polyps contrasted against the opaque fluid. Even in the best of circumstances, the test is not very accurate.

Dr. J. Bordas, from the University of Barcelona in Spain, and his associates examined 24 patients with hereditary syndromes that made them prone to develop multiple intestinal polyps.

Using the pill camera, the team spotted polyps in the small bowel in seven patients, whereas barium studies detected polyps in only three of these seven patients.

“This is now one more role for the capsule to play,” panel moderator Dr. Richard Rothstein, from Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, New Hampshire, commented: “the assessment of patients with polyps that can occur in the small bowel.”

Digestive Disease Week is jointly sponsored by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, the American Gastroenterological Association, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, and the Gastroenterology Research Group.