Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE

International Conference on Robotics and Automation

Barcelona, Spain, April 2005

Pressure Monitoring System in

Gastro-Intestinal Tract
Youngin Kim, Geunho Lee, Sukho Park, Byungkyu Kim*, Jong-Oh Park, Jin-ho Cho
Microsystem Research Center
Korea Institute of Science and Technology
P.O.BOX 131, Cheongryang, Seoul, 130-650, Korea,
{kuciewsza, 2geunho, shpark, bkim, jop}@kist.re.kr, [email protected]

Abstract - Diseases in the gastro-intestinal tract are on an modules in order to realize the functional endoscopes of
increasing trend. In order to diagnose a patient, various temperature, pressure, pH, and so on.
signals of the digestive organ, such as temperature, pH, and
pressure, can offer the helpful information. Among the above For in-vivo telemetric studies of the gastro-intestinal
mentioned signals, we choose the pressure variation as a tract, Johannessen [3] suggests an analytical microsystem,
monitoring signal. The variation of a pressure signal of the which incorporates a four sensing channel. The measuring
gastro-intestinal tract can offer the information of a digestive signals are temperature, pH, conductivity and oxygen.
trouble or some clues of the diseases. In this paper, a pressure However, they did not deal with a pressure signal in the
monitoring system for the digestive organs of a living pig is body.
presented. This is why a pig’s gastro-intestinal tract is very
similar as human’s. This system concept is to transmit the Especially, because the pressures in the human body or
measured biomedical signals from a transmitter in a living a living body is necessary as a part of clinical examinations
pig to a wireless receiver that is positioned out of body. The and for physiological studies, a new inspection and new
integrated solution includes the following parts: (1) the devices have been developed for a monitoring of a gastro-
swallow type pressure capsule, (2) the receiving set consisting intestinal tract. Firstly, the intra gastric and intra intestinal
of a receiver, decoder box, and PC. The merit of the pressures are measured in the gastro-intestinal tract [4].
proposed system is that the monitoring system can supply the These pressure signals are considered as the sum of the
precise and repeatable pressure in the gastro-intestinal tract. pressures developed by the peristaltic motions of the
In addition, the design of low power consumption enables it stomach or the intestine and the pressure in the peritoneal
to keep sending reliable signals while the pressure capsule is cavity. Recently, there are many endeavor and attempts for
working in the digestive organ. The subject of the study for an increasing accuracy of the diagnosis in a bio-medical
the pressure monitoring system is in-vivo experiments for a field for this environment. For the long-term monitoring of
living pig. We achieved the pressure tracings in digestive the pressure in the digestive system, it is preferable to use a
organs and verified the validity of system after several in- pressure transducer that is separated from external
vivo tests using the pressure monitoring system. As a result, instruments. Therefore, the pressure sensor module can be
we found each organ has its own characterized pressure
either surgically implanted (as in the case of the
fluctuation.
intracranial pressure measurements) or swallowed (for
Index Terms - Pressure monitoring system; pressure pressure measurements in the gastrointestinal tract) [4].
capsule; gastro-intestinal tract; in-vivo test The swallowable capsule including gastro-intestinal
pressure telemetry has been studied by many researchers
I. INTRODUCTION [5-9]. In addition, Mackey has suggested the pressure
Recently, the endoscopy has been developed since sensor, which was enclosed in a rubber balloon and
diseases in the gastro-intestinal tract have gradually measured the pressure signal from a human stomach, a
increased. Among the endoscopic technologies, a capsule small intestine, and a colon [10]. However, the above
type endoscope is highlighted for the convenience of a mentioned results are insufficient to differentiate each
patient. While the capsule endoscope moves along the digestive organ.
gastro-intestinal tract, it transmits the various visual images In this paper, we report the concept of the telemetry
of in the digestive organs [1] [2]. The device, known as the system about the proposed pressure monitoring system as
M2A Imaging System (Given Imaging), can supply reliable shown in Figure 1. This concept is to transmit the measured
images of the gastro-intestinal tract [1]. biomedical signals from the transmitter in the body to the
Except the visual images of the digestive organs, we wireless receiver out of the body. The RF carrier
can know that the various signals in the organs, such as frequency is 1.2 GHz (Frequency Shift Keying) for the
temperature, pH, and pressure, can offer the useful transmission of the signals from inside the living body. The
information for the diagnosis of a patient. In addition, we pressure monitoring system comprises: (1) the swallowable
have an interest in the miniaturized wireless telemetry type pressure capsule and (2) the receiving set including

0-7803-8914-X/05/$20.00 ©2005 IEEE. 1333

the receiver, the decoder box, and the PC. The developed
pressure monitoring system has several advantages of the
following. Firstly, the monitoring system has the capability
to measure precise pressure in the gastro-intestinal tract.
Secondly, low power consumption of the pressure capsule
enables to keep stable power while the pressure capsule is
working. Finally, from the measured signal, we can analyze
that the pressure signals are caused by the movements of
the organ, such as the breathing in the lungs and the
beating in the heart.

Figure 2. Setup of pressure monitoring system.

B. Shape design of pressure capsule

The pressure capsule has to be small for inserting
through a mouth and an esophagus. The external shape and
rigidity of the capsule have to be optimized to fix in the
gastro-intestinal tract. Figure 3 shows a photograph of the
shape for the pressure capsule. The dimension of this
capsule included all components is 30mm in length and
13mm in diameter. For the manufacture process of the
pressure capsule, a commercial pressure sensor, electronic
Figure 1. Concept of telemetry. circuits with an antenna, and a commercial battery were
integrated into the capsule as three multistage. After the
integration, the capsule was sealed with a waterproof agent.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: In the
following chapter, the conceptual design and the prototype
of the pressure monitoring system are presented. In
Chapter III, the pressure capsule is discussed in detail,
where the design of the pressure capsule and the design of
the wireless transmitter module are described. Chapter IV
will present the experimental verification for the proposed
pressure monitoring system, where it is confirmed that the
experimental results verify the reliability and the validity of
the monitoring system through an in-vivo test using a
living pig. In addition, some analytic results of the
measured pressures will be presented. Finally, concluding
remarks will be drawn in Chapter V.
Figure 3. Shape of pressure capsule.
II. PRESSURE MONITORING SYSTEM SETUP

A. Overall system C. Receiving Set

The pressure monitoring system embodies a kind of The block diagram of the receiving set is shown in
functional endoscope in order to measure pressure in the Figure 4. Because the transmitted pressure data from the
digestive tract of a living body. In the following Figure 2, pressure capsule is modulated 1.2 GHz FSK, the receiver
the functional structure of the pressure monitoring system transfers those signals to the decode box after
is classified into the pressure capsule and the receiving set. demodulating the transmitted data as an illustrated this
The pressure capsule transmits the measured pressure block diagram. The CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic
sensing data of an alimentary canal to the external Device) decoder, XCR3064XL-10CP44C (Xilinx, USA),
receiving set by the modulated 1.2 GHz carrier frequency. separates these signals to the pressure data and the sync
The receiving set receives the measured data and display or control signals. The sync signals are measured to
storage the sensing result. To verify the designed and the synchronize with these measurement data. These data are
manufactured pressure monitoring system, in-vivo parallel and valid only at the positive edge of the sync
experiments were performed with a living pig. signals. The data stream of the decoder signal is illustrated
in Figure 5. The separated signals are transferred to DAQ
board (NI6024E, National Instruments of USA) in the PC.

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The interface program displays the pressure measurement
results.

Figure 6. Block diagram of pressure capsule.

Figure 4. Block diagram of receiving set .

Figure 5. Data stream of decoder.

Figure 7. Layout of pressure capsule.

III. DEVELOPMENT OF PRESSURE CAPSULE This capsule consists of a pressure sensor, a digital
controller by Verilog HDL, a 1.2 GHz transmitter, and a
A. Pressure Capsule battery as shown in Figure 7. The capsule also includes a
Figure 6 shows an electronic circuit block diagram in 10mm diameter loop antenna for transmitting the measured
the pressure capsule. For a pressure sensor, a pressure sensing data. The digital controller of the pressure
commercialized pressure sensor (MS5535A, Intersema of capsule is implemented as a single module that consists of
Switzerland) was used. The pressure sensor module [11], the controller for the pressure sensor, the encoder, and a
MS5535A, is a SMD-hybrid device including a piezo- double-sided single PCB (Printed Circuit Board). The
resistive pressure sensor and an ADC-interface IC. The specifications of this controller are summarized in Table I.
resolution of this sensor is typically 1.2 mbar.
A four-wire interface is used for the communication TABLE I. SPECIFICATION OF DIGITAL CONTROLLER.
between the sensor and the digital controller unit. The
SCLK (Serial Clock =125 kHz) signal initiates and
Feature Value
synchronizes the data transference. In addition, the data
signal in Figure 6 is the ADC conversion result for the Device XCR3064-10CP56C
measured data by the pressure sensor. The selection of the
output data is dependent on the control signal. The signal Voltage 3.3 V
MCLK (Master Clock) indicates the AD-converter clock
Current 8 ~ 10mA
(32.768 kHz frequency), that is also supplied from the
digital controller unit. The digital controller is designed Used I/O 10
using Verilog HDL in ISE-WebPACK (Xilinx). The
selected chip is XCR3064-10CP56C (Xilinx) for the digital Frequency 4MHz
control unit. This unit generates MCLK signal, SCLK
signal, and the control signal in order to operate the
pressure sensor and transmit the measured pressure data to The dimension of this controller with an oscillator is
the encoder. The output of the digital controller is encoded 4.5 mm in thickness and 10 mm in diameter. The pressure
to suit the wireless transmission and the reconstruction of sensor and the electronic circuits are connected to a 3 V Li-
the pressure measurement data. battery. The Li-battery uses a lithium metal alloy in its
negative electrode (anode) and manganese a dioxide in its

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positive electrode (cathode) [12]. The consumable power has an omni directional antenna characteristic in order to
from the battery is an average level of 48 mW. In order to transmit the measured signals continuously. The wireless
investigate the battery lifetime, the supplied voltage of the transmitter module totally consumes the current of about
battery is measured and the result is shown in Figure 8. 13 ~ 14mA.
The energy output rating for the Li-battery used is typically
indicating 160 mA*hr. The pressure capsule should last IV. EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION
more than 11 hours to guarantee a sufficient measuring
through a whole gastro-intestinal tract because the A. Experimental Setup
operating voltage of the capsule is 2.2 V at the minimum.
The in-vivo test of the monitoring system was carried
out at Yonsei medical center in Korea under anesthesia
condition. The objective of the in-vivo test was to check
the operation of the proposed pressure monitoring system.
To verify the pressure capsule, the various experiments for
the reliable data acquisition, transmission of an acquired
data through a living medium were performed. By these
experiments, the operation of the receiving set was tested
for receiving, sorting, storing and displaying the signals. In
addition, our research is intended to verify the miniaturized
wireless telemetry modules for other function such as the
recognition of the location based on the pressure difference
of each digestive organ.

Figure 8. Result of battery test for pressure capsule.

Figure 10. Calibration for pressure sensor.

Figure 9. Transmitting module for pressure capsule.

To verify the linearity of the output signals for the

pressure sensor, we carried out the several calibration tests
B. Design of Wireless Transmitter Module in the Figure 10. Probing device is calibrated to obtain the
The wireless transmitter is realized by a VCO (Voltage relationship between an input force and an output data of
Controlled Oscillator) with the resonant component like a the pressure sensor. Some nonlinear region is observed as
type of a microstrip line and a buffer Amp (Amplifier) in shown in Figure 10 due to the noise of the ADC. On the
order to stabilize the output and the characteristic. The basis of a datasheet [11], a stable pressure sensor reading
buffer Amp plays a role in the amplifying output power requires taking the average of 4 to 8 subsequent pressure
and the restraining the oscillation frequency of the VCO value. However, the linearity can be guaranteed in the
due to the change of impedance at the output stage. The measured pressure ranges of a gastro-intestinal tract [3, 10].
transmitter PCB is shown in Figure 9-(a) & (b) and has the
dimension of 10mm in diameter and 2.3mm in thicknesses. B. Experimental Processure and Results
Then, the operating point is Vce = 2 V and Ic = 7 mA. The The procedure of the in-vivo test for the pressure
fabricated transmitter has the power spectrum of -3.67 dBm monitoring system is shown in Figure 11. Before putting
and the frequency displacement of 1.224 ~ 1.244 GHz. In the swallowable pressure capsule in a living pig in Figure
addition, the manufactured antenna is illustrated in Figure 11-(a) & (b), we measure for an atmospheric pressure as in
9-(c). The antenna for a wireless transmission has the advance. The atmospheric pressure is used the reference
dimension of 10mm in diameter and 0.8mm in thickness. signal for the other signals. In Figure 11-(c), the capsule is
The radiation pattern of an antenna for the pressure capsule inserted through an over-tube and started monitoring

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pressure data at the esophagus. Next, the pressure capsule TABLE II. MEASURING PRESSURE DATA.
reaches at the stomach and transmits the pressure data in
the stomach. Finally, the capsule is deeply put in the colon
through the anus (Figure 11-(d)) and the pressure data of Mean Max Min Max-Min
the colon can be received. (kPa) (kPa) (kPa) (kPa)

Esophagus 99.22 99.52 98.91 0.61

Stomach 99.84 99.93 99.78 0.15
Colon 100.96 101.16 100.85 0.31

The experimental results of the pressure sensor module

can offer the following useful information:
z The pressure signal of the colon is higher than the
atmospheric pressure and those of the esophagus and the
stomach are below the atmospheric pressure;
z The fluctuating signal is caused by the movements of the
organs such as the breathing in the lungs and the beating
in the heart. This result can be well explained by the FFT
(Fast Fourier Transform) of the esophagus signal (Figure
13). The peak frequencies in the FFT are about 0.258 Hz
Figure 11. In-vivo test.
and 1.425 Hz. It is estimated that the frequency of 0.258
Hz (=15.5 cycle/minute) is caused by the breathing in the
The pressure measuring results of in-vivo test are lungs. In addition, the peak of 1.425 Hz (=85.5
shown in Figure 12. First, the pressure capsule measures cycle/minute) can be explained by the beating of the
the atmospheric pressure of about 100 kPa. From these data, heart.
we can know that the pressure capsule works well. Second, z The fluctuation by the breathing is well shown in the all
when the capsule is located in esophagus, the average organs. However, the beating fluctuation is well shown
pressure is measured as 99.22 kPa and the signal is in the esophagus only. The reason can be interpreted that
fluctuated between 98.91 kPa and 99.52 kPa. Third, the the esophagus is very closer to the heart than other
pressure in the stomach is about 99.78 ~ 99.93 kPa. Finally, organs.
when the pressure capsule is situated at the colon, the
measured pressure is about 101.16 ~ 101.85 kPa. The
measurement pressure data are summarized in Table II.

Figure 13. FFT of the pressure signal in esophagus.

From the in-vivo experimental results, we can know

that each organ in the digestive tract gives distinct and
different pressure measurement data. The result means that
the location of the capsule can be also estimated by the
Figure 12. Result of in-vivo test. pressure signal. In addition, through the many clinical tests
by using the pressure capsule, the measuring pressure
signals can be used as helpful information of the diseases

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in the organs such as digestive troubles and breathing ACKNOWLEDGMENT
malfunctions.
Authors wish to thank Prof. Hyunchul Choi in
Kyungpook National University for the development of
V. CONCLUSIONS telemetry module and many valuable discussions. This
work was supported by the 21st Century's Frontier R&D
Projects, under the contract number MS-02-324-01,
The pressure monitoring system with the pressure sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology,
capsule suitable for a digestive tract is presented. Through Korea.
the pressure measurements of the digestive tract using the
pressure capsule, the reliability and validity of the pressure
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