DALLAS -- The traditional way to detect damage caused by heartburn, acid reflux and other conditions is by an endoscopy. That involves sending a long, flexible tube, called an endoscope, through the patient's mouth and throat into the esophagus. The procedure requires sedation, up to an hour of recovery time and a day off from work.

But new technology may eliminate the need for an endoscopy procedure.

The Food and Drug Administration late last year approved the new Pillcam ESO technology -- a pill containing tiny cameras that process images for doctors to review.

In fact, the pill takes about 2,600 color pictures as it travels down the esophagus -- 14 per second. The images are sent to a recording device.

"We can screen patients for precancerous changes in a less-invasive manner, so they don't lose time from work," said Dr. Charles Ulrich, a gastroenterologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Ulrich said the Pillcam, which is about the size of a large vitamin pill, can detect 95 percent of precancerous changes, although esophageal cancer cases still need to be confirmed through an endoscopy.

"The main use of the Pillcam ESO right now is to find pre-cancerous changes in the esophaguses of patients who had had acid reflux for more than five years," Ulrich said.

An endoscopy is always available if there needs to be a second look.

"The only problem with this would be if you can't swallow a pill ... if they have a possible intestinal obstruction," Ulrich said.

There is a Pillcam for the esophagus and also one to look at bowels. One for the colon is in development. So far, the Pillcam for bowels is the only one covered by insurance plans.

The Pillcam works its way out of the human body naturally.