COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - About 19 million people suffer from GERD, or gastroesophageal reflux disease.
    
It's an often painful condition when acid moves up from the stomach into the esophagus.
    
Now experts are studying some new technology that would replace uncomfortable, traditional tracking procedures.

Tiny pill cameras were one of the first ways doctors used wireless technology to diagnose esophagus disorders like reflux. A patient swallows the disposable miniature camera and it takes hundreds of pictures inside the body.

Doctors used the capsule on 29-year-old John Grimes when he complained of reflux symptoms. Surgeons implanted the capsule on his esophagus.

"It was there for probably about two weeks, but it was monitored for 24 hours at a monitor that's about a little larger than a beeper or a cell phone," said Grimes.

Now researchers at UT Southwestern in Dallas and UT Arlington are testing the next generation of wireless monitoring systems. It will be one of the first to detect other causes of reflux, while using safe radio frequency signals.

"The frequencies that we're using are the kind that are in the atmosphere all around us. They're not microwaves, they're not even cell phone energy, they're very low frequency," said Dr. Fred Tibbals.
  
Once the system is approved for humans, doctors will pin a small, dime-size chip to the esophagus. The chip will detect electrical impulses that signal acidic or nonacidic liquids moving through the esophagus.

"It's a much more comfortable test and will not change the way you routinely eat," says Dr. Shou Jiang Tang.  

Exciting news for patients like John who want to treat their nagging, reflux symptoms.  

The wireless monitoring system is still in the testing phase, but researchers say the device will act similarly to a PDA to store the results.
    
Then doctors would download the data to a computer to analyze it.

Posted by Logan Smith