Development of a custom capacitive solution for enabling LES localization during MII-pH procedures

In the present work, the design of a catheter prototype for the diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) using impedance sensors, pH sensor and an innovative capacitive pressure sensor has been developed with the aim of overcoming the current state of art drawbacks. In the last few decades, new technologies have been implemented to permit effective diagnosis of GERD. In this contest, the Multichannel Intraluminal impedance and pH technique is now considered the gold standard in evaluating gastroesophageal disorders. Nevertheless, this technology currently faces some limitations due to the fact that it requires the use of manometry to locate the lower oesophageal sphincter, which is where the probe must be placed in order to make the diagnosis. Manometry is an expensive technique, time consuming, not available in all centres and most importantly makes the entire procedure doubly invasive for the patient because two catheters must be introduced one in succession to the other in the patient’s nostrils. In this work, some promising results have been achieved: by adding a capacitive pressure sensors to the common pH-impedance catheter, the idea is to be able to perform the procedure using a single catheter, exploiting the pressure data to localize the lower oesophageal sphincter, being the highest pressure point inside the oesophagus