A new artificial-intelligence (AI)-driven system combining wearable coils and ingestible "smart" pills may offer a promising solution for recognizing and tracking gastrointestinal (GI) gasses linked to digestive ailments, according to recent findings.

Traditionally, detecting and monitoring gasses tied to conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), food intolerances, and stomach cancers has been invasive, often involving procedures conducted in hospital settings.

This innovative system, crafted by researchers from the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering, Los Angeles, marks "a major advancement in ingestible technology," says lead researcher Yasser Khan, PhD, and his team.

In the future, Khan envisions this cutting-edge pill functioning like a "Fitbit for your gut," potentially aiding early diagnosis of diseases. The research is now available online in Cell Reports Physical Science.

Monitoring in Real-time

Although wearable sensors show potential in monitoring bodily functions, tracking devices once they’ve entered the body has typically posed challenges.

To address this, the research team designed a system featuring a wearable coil, secured to a t-shirt in this study, paired with an ingestible pill encased in a 3D-printed, biocompatible resin shell.

The pill incorporates a gas-permeable membrane, an optical gas-sensing membrane, an optical filter, and a printed circuit board containing its electronics. The sensor within the pill measures oxygen concentrations ranging from 0%-20%, alongside ammonia levels from 0-100 ppm.

The team created algorithms and conducted a variety of experiments to demonstrate the system's capability to determine the pill’s location in a human gut model, as well as an ex vivo animal intestine. Testing within an agar phantom solution simulated an in vivo environment, enabling successful pill tracking.

So, how does it work?

The process starts when the patient swallows the pill. A smartphone app connects to the pill via Bluetooth, instructing it to begin measuring target gasses and the magnetic field.

The wearable coil then generates a magnetic field, detected by the pill’s magnetic sensor. This allows the pill’s location to be pinpointed in real time.

Subsequently, the system employs optical absorption spectroscopy, which includes a light-emitting diode, photodiode, and the pill’s gas-sensing membrane, to measure gasses like oxygen and ammonia in 3D as the pill travels through the gut.

Significantly, higher levels of ammonia, often caused by Helicobacter pylori, could act as a marker for peptic ulcers, gastric cancer, or IBS, according to Khan.

"The ingestible system, combined with the wearable coil, is not only compact but also practical, signaling potential future use in healthcare," Khan commented. He suggests this technology could help patients monitor their GI gas profiles from home, offering a new way to manage digestive health from the comfort of their own space.

Upcoming plans focus on testing the device in animal models to verify factors such as whether the gas-sensing functions work effectively within biological tissue, and to evaluate if sensors might suffer from clogging or coating due to contact with bodily fluids or food particles, which could impact accuracy, according to Khan and his team.

The researchers acknowledge the support of USC Viterbi School of Engineering for this project. The technology described has been submitted for a provisional patent. The authors also mention using ChatGPT to check for grammatical issues in their manuscript, though they personally reviewed and finalized the content, taking full responsibility for the work.

Marilynn Larkin, MA, is an award-winning medical writer and editor, with her work featured in publications such as Medscape Medical News, MDedge, The Lancet (where she was a contributing editor), and Reuters Health.