JP2002282219A - Intracorporeal capsule - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an intracorporeal capsule capable of making continuous motions for a long period of time without requiring change of a battery. SOLUTION: The intracorporeal capsule 110 comprises a battery 10 using the humor fed from the subcutaneous tissue as the electrolyte, a processing circuit board 20 on which various circuits operated with currents fed by the battery 10 are mounted, a body temperature sensor 30 for detecting the body temperature around the intracorporeal capsule 110, a heart rate sensor 32 for detecting the heart rate based on the variation of the pressure around the intracorporeal capsule, and an antenna 34 disposed along the inner wall of the intracorporeal capsule 110.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an in-vivo capsule to be implanted in an animal body or a subcutaneous tissue of a human body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, attempts have been made to observe the location, habitat, activity range, and the like of an individual by implanting a transmitter in the body of an animal. Also, a device such as a cardiac pacemaker may be implanted in the human body. Various devices embedded in the body of an animal or a human body require an operation power supply, and a battery is usually used as the operation power supply.

[0003]

The above-described various devices implanted in the body of an animal or the like operate on batteries, and stop operating with the life of the batteries. If you want to use this device, you need to take out the device implanted inside the body once, replace the battery, or replace the device including the battery itself with a new one, and then reinsert it inside the body . Since this operation requires a surgical operation, the burden on an animal or the like in which the device is implanted is large, and the operation must be performed before the life of the battery has been reached.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and its purpose is to eliminate the need for battery replacement.
An object of the present invention is to provide a capsule capable of continuous operation for a long period of time.

[0005]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the in-vivo capsule of the present invention is to be implanted in the body of an organism, and uses a body fluid contained in the body tissue as an electrolytic solution. A power supply unit for taking out Since a battery using a body fluid contained in a body tissue as an electrolyte is provided, battery replacement is not required, and continuous operation of the body capsule can be performed for a long period of time.

Further, a processing circuit for performing a predetermined process using the current supplied from the power supply unit, and a transmission unit for transmitting the processing result of the processing circuit to the outside using the current supplied from the power supply unit It is desirable to provide The provision of the processing circuit and the transmission unit makes it possible to transmit the result of processing in the in-vivo capsule to the outside of the body.

In particular, the apparatus further includes a sensor for detecting a state inside the body, and the above-described processing circuit performs processing for processing a detection signal output from the sensor to generate transmission data, and transmits the transmission data to a transmission unit. It is desirable to send by. For example, considering a body temperature sensor, a heart rate sensor, and the like, it is possible to transmit these detection results from the body capsule to the outside of the body for a long period of time without replacing the battery. Monitoring can be performed without using a special connection line or the like.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, an in-vivo capsule according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an installed state of an in-vivo capsule according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied. As shown in FIG. 1, the in-vivo capsule 110 of the present embodiment is embedded in the subcutaneous tissue 102 immediately below the skin 100. In addition, as an example, the body capsule 11
Although “0” is embedded in the subcutaneous tissue 102, it may be embedded in an interstitial space between organs in the body or in other parts.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of the in-vivo capsule 110. As shown in FIG.
Reference numeral 0 denotes a battery 10 that uses a body fluid supplied from the subcutaneous tissue 102 as an electrolytic solution, a processing substrate 20 on which various circuits (described later) operated by an electric current supplied by the battery 10 are mounted, and a body capsule. A body temperature sensor 30 for detecting a body temperature around 110 and a heart rate sensor 3 for detecting a heart rate based on pressure fluctuation around the body capsule 110
2 and an antenna 34 arranged along the inner wall of the body capsule 110.

The battery 10 has a plurality of sets of two types of electrodes 11 and 12, and the space between each set of electrodes 11 and 12 is filled with a body fluid supplied from a subcutaneous tissue 102. Since the body fluid (lymph fluid) existing in the subcutaneous tissue 102 is an electrolytic solution, a potential difference appears between the two types of electrodes immersed in the electrolytic solution. In the present embodiment, a plurality of such electrode structures are arranged, and by connecting them in series, the output voltage of the battery 10 is equal to or higher than a predetermined value (for example, the operating voltage of the processing circuit 24 and the transmission circuit 26 described later). Is set to a voltage value sufficient to generate the

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a specific example of a circuit mounted on the processing substrate 20. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG.
In 0, a power supply circuit 22, a processing circuit 24, and a transmission circuit 26 are mounted. The power supply circuit 22 constitutes a power supply unit together with the battery 10 described above, and generates a predetermined operation voltage (for example, a voltage of about 1.5 V). The processing circuit 24 and the transmission circuit 26 operate by the current supplied from the power supply circuit 22. The processing circuit 24 is connected to the body temperature sensor 30 and the heart rate sensor 32, and processes detection signals output from these sensors to generate transmission data indicating the body temperature and the heart rate. The transmission circuit 26 constitutes a transmission unit together with the above-mentioned antenna 34, and transmits the transmission data created by the processing circuit 24 to the outside of the in-vivo capsule 110 via the antenna 34. The transmission data is received and collected by, for example, a receiving unit (not shown) arranged on the surface of the skin 100, and is used for observing and diagnosing a state in the body.

As described above, the in-vivo capsule 1 of the present embodiment is
The battery 10 is embedded in the subcutaneous tissue 102.
Is filled with a bodily fluid, and a predetermined operating voltage is generated. Therefore, since the body fluid is supplied into the battery 10 and the operation voltage is continuously generated, the battery replacement is not necessary as in the conventional case, and the body capsule 110 is not used for a long time.
Can be operated continuously.

In particular, the body capsule 110 is provided with a body temperature sensor 30 and a heart rate sensor 32. Transmission data indicating the body temperature and the heart rate are created based on the detection signals of these sensors, and the body capsule 110 and the heart rate sensor 32 are generated. Since the data is transmitted outside the body, by receiving the transmission data and performing a predetermined process, it is possible to continuously monitor and diagnose the state of the body without using a special connection line or the like.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention. For example, in the embodiment described above,
Although the case where the body temperature sensor 30 and the heart rate sensor 32 are provided has been described as an example, other sensors may be provided.

In the above-described embodiment, the power supply circuit 2
The operation voltage generated by the operation circuit 2 is directly applied to the processing circuit 24 and the transmission circuit 26. However, as shown in FIG. 4, the secondary battery 29 is charged by using the charging circuit 28, and the charging voltage is used by using this charging voltage. The operating voltage may be generated by the power supply circuit 22. In this case, even if the generated voltage of the battery 10 fluctuates, it is possible to always generate a constant operating voltage.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, since a battery using a body fluid contained in a body tissue as an electrolyte is provided, there is no need to replace the battery, and the body capsule can be continuously used for a long period of time. Operation becomes possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing an installed state of an in-vivo capsule according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of a body capsule.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a specific example of a circuit mounted on a processing substrate.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a modified example of a circuit mounted on a processing substrate.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Battery 20 Processing board 22 Power supply circuit 24 Processing circuit 26 Transmission circuit 28 Charging circuit 29 Secondary battery 30 Body temperature sensor 32 Heart rate sensor 34 Antenna 110 In-vivo capsule

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 4C017 AA02 AA10 AA16 AB10 AC16 EE01 FF05 FF15 FF17 5H025 AA13 BB12 BB18 CC16

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An in-vivo capsule embedded in a living body, comprising a power supply unit for extracting an electric current by using a body fluid contained in a body tissue as an electrolyte. 2. The processing circuit according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuit performs predetermined processing using a current supplied from the power supply unit, and outputs a processing result of the processing circuit to an external device using the current supplied from the power supply unit. And a transmitting unit for transmitting to the body capsule. 3. The transmission unit according to claim 2, further comprising a sensor for detecting a state inside the body, wherein the processing circuit performs a process of generating a transmission data by processing a detection signal output from the sensor. A body capsule for transmitting said transmission data.