The FDA-cleared Atmo gas capsule from Atmo Biosciences solves one of the biggest problems in gut health. It can directly and continuously measure gas production and transit patterns in real time during digestion. This can fundamentally change how digestive and metabolic diseases are diagnosed and treated. Current methods for diagnosing gastrointestinal (GI) motility disorders (breath tests, stool tests, symptom-based diagnosis) often lack precision. There is a significant unmet clinical need in the gastroenterology and functional gut disorder spaces for objective, real-time diagnostic tools to accurately measure gut function.

Dr. Eamonn Martin Quigley is the David M. Underwood Chair of Medicine in Digestive Health and investigates how various GI diseases and conditions affect the functions of the gut.

Dr. Quigley shared his insights on how the Atmo capsule may transform the landscape for GI motility disorders.

Q: Can the Atmo capsule lead to reduced healthcare costs?

A: The Atmo capsule has the potential to reduce healthcare costs by improving the accuracy and efficiency of the diagnosis of GI disorders. Patients with irritable bowel syndrome, bloating, constipation and other functional gut disorders currently go through multiple specialist visits, breath tests and endoscopies, which can be expensive and time-consuming. Faster and more accurate diagnosis may also help physicians tailor better treatments to patients, thereby improving outcomes, which can also reduce healthcare costs.

Q: A recent study demonstrates that the Atmo capsule can measure stomach contractions in addition to gastric emptying. How can this be leveraged to enhance our diagnosis or understanding of gastric motility disorders?

A: The ability of the Atmo capsule to measure stomach contractions is a great advance because it means that you’re actually getting a very direct assessment of the motility functions of the stomach. Normal and pathological motor patterns can be differentiated using the profiles generated by the Atmo capsule. Gastric motility disorders are fundamentally functional rather than structural diseases. Conventional imaging and endoscopy can appear normal while symptoms arise from abnormalities in neuromuscular functions. Combining transit data with contractility metrics can push the envelope to understand the heterogeneous abnormalities underlying gastric dysmotility disorders.

Q: The main use of the Atmo capsule currently is the clinical assessment of gastric emptying and colon transit. Can you discuss the potential clinical utility of the Atmo capsule in the future?

A: In addition to diagnostics, the Atmo capsule can be used to evaluate emerging therapeutics. Specifically, the Atmo capsule can help identify distinct physiological phenotypes that respond differently to therapy. Potentially, the management of GI disorders could shift from symptom-based treatment to physiology-based care. In addition to the other applications already discussed, the greatest therapeutic value of the Atmo capsule could lie in developing precision medicine approaches for heterogeneous GI motility disorders.

For further information on gut health and Dr. Quigley’s work on this topic, please see the following papers: