Medical Central: Endoscopes

Read more on Medical Imaging today. We leave the world of using waves, radioactivity, and other indirect methods (according to book) to look at a more direct method... endoscopes!

Endoscopes
Endoscopes are little cameras on the end of long, flexible tubes. The tubes are glass optical fibers, which have multiple uses, like the Internet or TV or phones, or (the book says) other media sources. But the book says that these things were made originally for medical purposes.
Tubes to see inside the body were developed somewhere in the 19th Century, according to the book. But it was only when the electrical light was made was this invention start going up in popularity, usuage (sp?), and usefulness. Even then, it took a little bit for the flexible tubes, not stiff ones, to come out. And then came the less-than-millimeter-thick ones!
Endoscopes work by using light pulses. There's a light source in the tube (outside the body which is transmitted through the tube, according to book), and the lens does the usual job of focusing. A TV gets the signals and broadcasts the images. Endoscopes are named after their job... like, gastroscopes go down the throat and check out the esogophus and stomach areas.
Endoscopes can look at many things... even ultrathin needlescopes exist which can check inside of blood vessels! How do they look inside? They can be inserted through openings... which include natural ones like the nose, mouth, or rectum, and artificial ones (according to book). The mouth can be a multi-use... both to check the stomach (which multiple wrinkles help it stretch out to receive food) and the lungs area according to the book. This can help check and diagnose different problems, like lung-heart sticking, tumors (of course), ulcers (book says sores in stomach), and even swelling in different areas (like bronchial tubes according to book).
But, despite this, endoscopes have a blind spot... the small intestine. To fix this problem, a different kind of endoscope was developed by Professor Paul Swain of the London Hospital: the "camera in a pill" (formal name: wireless capsule endoscope, according to the book). This camera is barely larger than the average pill. It can travel down the digestive system, and take pictures. Modern developments allow doctors to be able to stop the pill where they need to, because they're more like mini-robots and have things to attach themselves to the walls. But these cameras are small, and send the signals to a receiver, which the book says the patient wears.