Principal Investigator/Professor Clemson University, United States
Introduction: Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) serve as frequent complications for those living with diabetes mellitus. Diabetes tends to have a great impact on marginalized communities suffering from comorbidities such as hypertension, vascular disease, and obesity, which puts these patients at a further risk for the development of complications such as DFUs. DFUs can lead to the development of osteomyelitis, amputations, and death. An additional major issue is that there is a lack of standardization of care present regarding the treatment and assessment of DFUs. Overall, the purpose of this research is to gain a greater understanding of the process through which these wounds heal. The specific goal of this work is to analyze the presence of several inflammatory biomarkers that correlate to wound healing/response in three DFU patients over the course of four visits. At each visit, and for each patient, the Z [OHM] (magnitude or resistive term of the complex impedance) was recorded at the wound site via a novel nanocomposite electrochemical impedance spectroscopy biosensor. It was hypothesized that as the wound heals the Z [OHM] would increase as well; this would signify decreased conductivity which would be more prevalent in healed skin as opposed to broken skin/open wounds.
Materials and
Methods: Images were cropped to a consistent size and all sensor data were screened for statistical outliers. Analysis and visualization were accomplished through Microsoft Office tools and ImageJ software was used to analyze the widths of the wounds seen in the collected images. In theory, the Z [OHM] would increase as the wound diameter decreases, because both signify wound healing.
Results: The presented data in Figure 1 represent mean values of impedance data over the course of 200 data points (approximately 5 minutes). Wound healing was also assessed through photographs and width/depth measurements (Figure 2).
Results, Conclusions, and Discussions: The results of this study revealed an overall increase in Z [OHM] over the course of healing as indicated by wound imaging and measurement, coupled with sensor data. There is some variability in performance related to wound outcomes and sensor fabrication inconsistency. These inconclusive results do not discourage the need for this research to continue to be conducted. On the contrary, it serves a confirmatory purpose of showing that there is still much to learn about the process of wound healing. The data that was collected aids in establishing a preliminary set of information which will help future research related to this study. Future work will be directed at increasing both the patient population and the amount of data collected.
