A novel prepless X-ray imaging capsule for colon cancer screening

The demand for bowel cleansing hampers participation in screening colonoscopy, while poor preparation impairs adenoma detection. A novel prepless X-ray imaging capsule for colon screening is presented; the capsule emits low dose X-rays, which are scattered by ingested contrast agent mixed with colon contents, and sensed by detectors in the capsule to generate high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) imagery of the colon without bowel cleansing. Following preliminary studies with implanted polyps in synthetic colon phantoms, bovine cadaver and live swine, and human experiments with dummy capsules (n=75), 49 patients swallowed the capsule with natural excretion in 48 after 73.2±45.4 h. Pedunculated and sessile polyps were clearly seen and validated by subsequent colonoscopy. Total radiation exposure was ultra low (0.03±0.007 mSv).