On the use of impedance detuning for gastrointestinal segment tracking of ingestible capsules

TL;DR

This study explores using impedance detuning of ingestible antennas to identify the gastrointestinal segment where a capsule is located, demonstrating that phase changes in impedance can reliably track capsule position.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method leveraging impedance phase detuning of antennas for gastrointestinal segment detection in ingestible capsules.

Findings

Impedance phase changes of around 10 degrees distinguish GI segments.

Numerical and experimental results confirm the feasibility of phase-based tracking.

The method works in tissue-mimicking liquids and ex vivo porcine models.

Abstract

During their travel through the gastrointestinal tract, ingestible antennas encounter detuning in their impedance response due to varying electromagnetic properties of the surrounding tissues. This paper investigates the possibility of using this impedance detuning to detect in which segment of the gastrointestinal tract - stomach, small intestine, or large intestine - the capsule is located. Meandered dipole antennas operating in the 433 MHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical Band are designed for this purpose. The antennas conform to the inner surface of 3D-printed polylactic-acid capsules with a shell thickness of 0.6 or 0.4 mm. The impedance response is first optimized numerically in a homogeneous cylindrical phantom with time-averaged electromagnetic properties. The magnitude and the phase of the reflection coefficient are then obtained in different tissues and compared with simulations and measurements. The experimental demonstration is carried out first using tissue-mimicking liquids and then in a recently deceased ex vivo porcine model. The minimum change in the phase between different gastrointestinal tissues was determined to be around 10 degrees in the porcine model, indicating that the changes in the impedance response, particularly the changes in the phase, provide sufficient information to follow the position of the capsule in the gastrointestinal tract.