Tiny camera can view intestinal ducts

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Doctors often use small cameras inside the body to help spot and treat diseases. The latest camera – slightly larger than a human hair – can fit inside the tiny bile duct near the small intestine.

Most cameras fit on a scope about as big as a small finger. The SpyGlass Direct Visualization System, available at UNC Hospitals since April, allows gastroenterologists to view even smaller places in the body.

Dr. Lisa Gangarosa, a UNC gastroenterologist, used to depend on X-ray images to spot potential problems in the bile or pancreatic ducts.

“All we can see on the X-ray is that there is a narrowing,” Gangarosa said. The narrowing could be due to bile duct stones or cancer.

Until now, a camera on an endoscope could only reach as far as the opening that leads into those ducts.

The SpyGlass allows doctors to “actually visualize with a camera what is going on inside those ducts,” Gangarosa said.

Patients are under conscious sedation or general anesthesia for procedures with the SpyGlass.

A normal duct should be smooth walls filled with yellow fluid. A narrow area on an X-ray image can be worrisome for cancer, Gangarosa said. A catheter can send down tiny forceps to grab a biopsy sample.

The SpyGlass is a brand new tool, just placed on the market in the past year. It can be used as an inpatient or outpatient procedure.