Logo image
Assessment of sacrococcygeal pressure ulcers using diffuse correlation spectroscopy
Conference proceeding

Assessment of sacrococcygeal pressure ulcers using diffuse correlation spectroscopy

David Diaz, Alec Lafontant, Michael Neidrauer, Michael S. Weingarten, Rose Ann DiMaria-Ghalili, Guy W. Fried, Julianne Rece, Peter A. Lewin and Leonid Zubkov
Optical Diagnostics and Sensing XVI: Toward Point-of-Care Diagnostics, v 9715, 97150M
04 Mar 2016

Abstract

Life Sciences & Biomedicine Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging Science & Technology Optics Physical Sciences
Microcirculation is essential for proper supply of oxygen and nutritive substances to the biological tissue and the removal of waste products of metabolism. The determination of microcirculatory blood flow (mBF) is therefore of substantial interest to clinicians for assessing tissue health; particularly in pressure ulceration and suspected deep tissue injury. The goal of this pilot clinical study was to assess deep-tissue pressure ulceration by non-invasively measuring mBF using Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy (DCS). DCS provides information about the flow of red blood cells in the capillary network by measuring the temporal autocorrelation function of scattering light intensity. A novel optical probe was developed in order to obtain measurements under the load of the subject's body as pressure is applied (ischemia) and then released (reperfusion) on sacrococcygeal tissue in a hospital bed. Prior to loading measurements, baseline readings of the sacral region were obtained by measuring the subjects in a side-lying position. DCS measurements from the sacral region of twenty healthy volunteers have been compared to those of two patients who initially had similar non-blanchable redness. The temporal autocorrelation function of scattering light intensity of the patient whose redness later disappeared was similar to that of the average healthy subject. The second patient, whose redness developed into an advanced pressure ulcer two weeks later, had a substantial decrease in blood flow while under the loading position compared to healthy subjects. Preliminary results suggest the developed system may potentially predict whether non-blanchable redness will manifest itself as advanced ulceration or dissipate over time.

Metrics

18 Record Views

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Web of Science research areas
Optics
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Logo image