CHICAGO — Pill cameras used for diagnostic purposes are not new to the U.S. market and there are several companies that make various versions of these pill-sized cameras. But a new company in Israel, Vibrant (Petach Tikva, Israel) has put an interesting spin on the pill-like devices with a vibrating capsule designed to treat, not diagnose, specific types of constipation.

CHICAGO — With 5,246 abstracts being compressed into four days of lectures and poster presentations at this year's Digestive Disease Week meeting, it can be a bit overwhelming to try to digest it all, pardon the pun. One theme that has emerged this week in Chicago is the advancements of colonoscopies, both in terms of technology and technique.

CHICAGO — Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) patients with incomplete symptom control even on the maximum dose of proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy have a new, less invasive option than surgery. EndoGastric Solutions (EGS; San Mateo, California) released new data at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) in Chicago that show most GERD patients who underwent the Transoral Incisionless Fundoplication (TIF) procedure with the EsophyX device continued to report complete elimination of all troublesome regurgitation and esophagitis for a full year after the procedure.

CHICAGO — Community gastroenterologists spend about a third of their time doing upper endoscopies on patients with gastric reflux in an effort to identify which of those patients have Barrett's esophagus (BE), a pre-cancerous condition characterized by esophageal goblet cell metaplasia. This is easier said than done, however, because the current gold standard for detecting BE is akin to a guessing game.