Scientists from Australia’s RMIT University reveal promising results from human trials of swallowable capsule that transmits data to a mobile phoneAn electronic gas-detecting pill could help in diagnosing gastrointestinal ailments, including irritable bowel syndrome. Now they have released results from the first human trials of the capsule, which collects information about the gases and transmits it to a hand-held device and mobile phone for doctors to read. “For the first time we have a tool that actually gives information about the activities of the microbiome inside the gut,” Kalantar Zadeh said. The most common methods currently used are breath and faecal tests, however some patients undergo surgery so direct samples from the gut can be examined. The results from the first human trials were published on Thursday in the journal Nature Electronics.

Source: The Guardian January 08, 2018 22:52 UTC