Wound Care Diagnosis: A Multidisciplinary Pilot Study using FT-IR Imaging and Non-Invasive Testing

Wound care is highly prevalent, costly and has limited published evidence. Wound healing is a complex process that involves an integration of numerous clinical and biochemical pathways. The process consists of the steps necessary when skin or tissue attempts to undergo repair at the site of injury. The two classifications of wound types are referred to as acute or chronic. Wound healing consists of four steps: hemostasis, inflammatory, proliferative and remodeling. During skin injury, the platelets form over the injury site to form a fibrin based clot which serves as a means for controlling any further extensive bleeding. In order to treat the wound, the correct diagnosis must be determined at the earliest stage. This study focused upon the understanding of chronic wounds that were non-healing and greater than 30 days with an emphasis upon venous ulcers. Venous ulcers are defined to be wounds that form due to venous valves improperly functioning making them usually the main form of chronic wounds. Early detection is crucial for these cases because the chances of infection can be possible and fatal leading to possible amputation if not treated immediately. The purpose of this project was to monitor wound progress of study patients using clinical non-invasive study tools and tissue imaging to establish an integrated diagnostic method for appropriate treatment plans of patients with non-healing chronic wounds. Our preliminary histological imaging of the tissue samples suggest that FT-IR can be modeled for wounds using the framework of granulation tissue for wound tissue pathological modeling. In addition, study patient non-invasive data findings from laser doppler imaging and digital thermography corresponded with the patient’s tissue pathology and medical history to understand issues of blood perfusion and skin temperature respectively. Our preliminary findings suggest we can establish a comprehensive diagnostic method with further clinical study patients and a more thorough staining set using both new and current samples to establish special classifiers relevant to identifying the necessary components within FT-IR imaging produced tissue samples for Wound Care.