A method for evaluating a gastrointestinal tract may include receiving an electrical signal that includes data pertaining to motility in the gastrointestinal tract of a patient and analyzing one or more characteristics of the electrical signal relative to one or more respective thresholds indicative of an occurrence or an imminence of a condition of the gastrointestinal tract.

A method is described for testing the viability of a tissue of a patient for an anastomosis using a perfusion measuring device wherein the method may comprise: controlling at least one actuating structure of the perfusion measuring device to rapidly ramp up a force exerted on at least one test area of the tissue selected for an anastomosis, the force exerted on the at least one test area defining a local (systolic) perfusion pressure; and, during the ramp up of the force, the computer receiving a sensor signal from at least one sensor of the perfusion measuring device and a signal from a blood pressure device, the sensor signal being indicative of perfusion of blood through the micro vascularization in the first test area and the blood pressure signal being indicative of a general (systolic) blood pressure of the patient; controlling the first actuating structure to slowly ramp down the force exerted on the first test area, when the sensor signal signals the computer that the perfusion of the blood in the tissue of the first test area has stopped; and, during the ramp down of the force, the computer determining the local perfusion pressure at which the sensor signal indicates a start of perfusion of blood through the micro vascularization, the determined local perfusion pressure defining a reperfusion pressure value of the first test area; and, determining a prediction whether or not the tissue of the at least one test area is viable for an anastomosis on the basis of the local reperfusion pressure value of the at least one test area and the general systolic blood pressure value.

Devices and methods for delivering an ingestible medicament of a medicament tablet into the gastrointestinal tract of a user. A device according to the invention includes a vibrating ingestible capsule and a hollow medicament compartment housing. The vibrating capsule includes a housing, a vibrating agitator disposed within the housing, a power supply, and a control element. The hollow medicament compartment housing is associated with the housing of the capsule and includes at least one aperture. The hollow of the medicament compartment housing is configured to have the medicament tablet disposed therein. The aperture(s) are dimensioned to enable fluid communication the surrounding environment and the hollow.

Methods and devices for in situ detection of a target substance within a fluid within a gastrointestinal tract are provided. The methods and devices use optical properties such as reflection or transmission of light to distinguish blood solutions from non-blood solutions in a gastrointestinal tract.

Image acquisition apparatuses, spectral apparatuses, methods and storage mediums for use with same are provided herein. At least one apparatus includes: a diffraction element irradiated by a light; a fiber for receiving reflected scattered light from a subject; a diffraction grating dispersing the transmitted light into light fluxes of wavelength bands again; an optical system imaging the split light fluxes; and an imaging device near the focal point of the optical system. An image is changed by rotating the diffraction grating, from which a two-dimensional image is acquired. The transmitted light may be branched into two or more, and input to a collimator lens and imaged as multiple spectral sequences by the optical system. At least one apparatus may form light fluxes traveling at different angles; and may acquire spectral information of the reflected and scattered light. Preferably, for the luminous fluxes, no gap exists in an image.

A pressure-measuring system, including a tube system having at least first and second pressure measuring devices, each including a pressure transducer membrane and a measuring chamber. A first flow regulation device with a perfusion tube section is positioned between the first pressure measuring device and a supply of fluid, and has a first tube clamp that acts on a tube section by squeezing. The system further includes at least one non-perfusion regulation device.

A plastic optical fiber for a medical device lighting decreases the cost of a lens and simplify the design of a lighting apparatus, wherein the plastic optical fiber for a medical device includes a core composed of a (co)polymer containing methyl methacrylate as a main component and is characterized by including a cladding material composed of a copolymer having a fluorine weight composition ratio of 60 to 74%, and by having a theoretical numerical aperture, NA, of 0.48 to 0.65 and, thus, the plastic optical fiber has a high numerical aperture and also has excellent translucency and flexibility.

A system and method is provided for measuring a mechanical property of a biological tube. The system and method operate to arrange a plurality of piezoelectric elements about the biological tube and apply a predetermined force or transduce an endogeneous or exogeneous force to the biological tube. The system and method also operate to receive a respective signal from each piezoelectric element in the plurality of piezoelectric elements responsive to the application of the predetermined force or a transduced endogenous or exogeneous force and calculate the mechanical property of the biological tube based on the signals received from the plurality of piezoelectric elements.

A system and method for monitoring a patient's compliance with a medication regimen includes an electronic tag integral with or attached to a medicine delivery device such as a capsule, the tag having an antenna and a receiver/transmitter, the system also including a reader positioned externally for detecting the presence and location of the delivery device in the patient.

The method and system for evaluating the effect of weather, geomagnetic background and the air on the condition of a person's bodyinvolves the input of personal databy a computer device user; the determination or specification of a geolocation; the transmission of the personal data and the geolocation data, to a processing unit; the requesting of environmental forecast data from a weather server; the transmission of the forecast data; the transmission of the user and forecast data to an encoder and the generation of a single hash code; the transmission of the hash code to a decoder and the correlation with a database of dependencies of the functioning of human body systems on weather, geomagnetic background and air condition parameters; and the transmission of the correlated data to a displayand the display of information about the effect of environmental parameters on the functioning of human body systems.