Contents
Index ii
Introduction vi
1 Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology of the GI system 1
1.1 Anatomy and Physiology of the Gastrointestinal Tract . . . 1
1.1.1 The Large Intestine . . . 7
1.1.2 Plicæsemilunares . . . 9
1.2 GI Tract Pathology . . . 11
1.2.1 Colonic Polyps and related syndromes . . . 11
1.2.2 Colorectal Cancer . . . 13
1.3 Examination of Large Intestine: Diagnostic procedures. Current clinical techniques for colonoscopy. . . 16
1.3.1 Standard Endoscopic technique . . . 17
1.3.2 Virtual Endoscopy . . . 20
1.3.3 Wireless Capsule Endoscopy . . . 21
2 Insufflation in Endoscopy: State of Art 25 2.1 Insufflation mechanism in Standard Endoscopy . . . 25
2.1.1 Working media . . . 26
2.1.2 Systems currently in use . . . 29
2.2 Insufflation in Virtual Endoscopy . . . 30
2.2.1 Quantification methods . . . 31
2.3 Insufflation in Wireless Capsule Endoscopy: preliminary studies . . . 32
3 Methods 35 3.1 Chemical Reaction . . . 37
3.1.1 Chemicals and products properties . . . 38
Contents
3.1.3 The two possibilities: Internal and External Reaction . . . 45
3.2 Device prototypes . . . 45
3.2.1 Internal Reaction . . . 46
3.2.2 External Reaction . . . 49
3.2.3 Soft Magnets and MAARS technology . . . 53
3.3 Tests . . . 59
3.3.1 Beckers Experimental Setup . . . 59
3.3.2 Bench test simulating colon environmental conditions . . . 61
3.3.3 Ex-vivo trials . . . 65
4 Results and discussion 67 4.1 Beckers Experimental Setup . . . 67
4.2 Bench test simulating environmental conditions: quantitative results . 72 4.3 Ex-vivo trials: qualitative results . . . 75
Conclusion 78
Bibliography 84
