Wireless technology is proving its usefulness as a medical diagnostic tool in two different areas on both sides of the Atlantic.

In Texas, Southwestern Medical Center doctors and University of Texas at Arlington engineers have developed an RFID monitoring system to track esophageal reflux. RFID is already used in thousands of retail stores to track inventory and in identification chips implanted in some pets. The researchers combined RFID with another emerging applied science called impedance monitoring, which tracks reflux through electrical impulses

The new system involves pinning a small, flexible RFID chip to the esophagus, where it remains until removed by a physician. The chip, about two square centimeters, or a little larger than a dime, tests for electrical impulses that signal acidic or non-acidic liquids moving through the esophagus. It then transmits data to a wireless sensor worn around the neck.

The device is still in the testing phase, but the researchers believe it will be a welcome replacement for current standard procedures, which require placing a flexible catheter tube through the nose and down into the esophagus. "The procedure is very uncomfortable and because of the catheter, you can’t eat or drink the way you normally would," says Shou Jiang Tang, assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern. "The test results can be biased because you change the way you eat."

No catheter is required with the RFID system, so doctors are hopeful that the system will make it easier to follow normal eating, drinking and activity patterns that play a part in acid reflux. Researchers say patients shouldn't feel anything in their throat when the device is inserted thanks to the use of a special plastic material.

In Italy, meanwhile, researchers have developed a wireless capsule endoscopic device that promises to be a useful and safe technique for studying small bowel health in children. "The small bowel has always been difficult to evaluate, due to its size and many convolutions," says researcher Gian Luigi de Angelis, a professor at the University of Parma. "This small camera can follow the entire length of the bowel, helping us identify signs of disease and damage that would otherwise be impossible to view in children."

The camera, encased in a capsule that can be swallowed or placed into the stomach, travels through the digestive system naturally and painlessly, reducing the need for the invasive tests, anesthesia or radiation required by more traditional scanning techniques, says de Angelis.

De Angelis is optimistic about the technology's future, but urges caution in pediatric use. "Our experience, which includes the largest number of pediatric patients reported in literature, confirms that this technology is a very useful system for the clinical work in suspected small-bowel diseases in infancy," he says. "However, the high rate of positive examination is due to the very careful selection of the patients."

Copyright 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers. PricewaterhouseCoopers refers to the network of member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity. All rights reserved. The preceding article was written by John Edwards, a freelance technology writer based in Gilbert, Arizona. He can be reached by phone at +1-480-854-0011.