Dr. Ali Rezaie, MD

Endoscopic Fluid Collection

for Small Intestinal Conditions

The small intestine is an understudied frontier of microbiome research. While aspiration during endoscopy is considered the gold standard to assess small bowel bacteria, the tools for sterile retrieval are primitive and poorly validated. Endoscopic aspiration is time-consuming and prone to contamination. Inspired by plants' ability to draw water by capillary action, a novel multi-capillary sterile system was designed which is a modified version of the conventional aspiration catheter. The purpose of this study is to examine the time and volume capabilities of this catheter in suctioning various liquids compared to conventional aspiration catheter, in two groups, each includes 23 patients that going under endoscopy at GI lab at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. The investigator will collect up to 2 ml fluid from Duodenum- in first group by using the conventional catheter and in second group by using the capillary catheter. The time collection and the volume of samples in 2 groups will be compared.