The Silicon Review ^Asia

A team of researchers has found a new invasive method to evaluate burn wound healing. The new method involves mere flash of laser light which asses the healing process.

To develop the new method, the team from the Manipal Academy of Higher Education utilized commercially available 325nm laser light and a detector. The laser light then checked the healing by going through the tissue fluorophores, and the re-emitted light was collected by the detector.

After that, a fiber optic measuring 3mm was used to record the re-emitted spectra to the wound site. Later on, the spectra were assessed in a spectrograph in the computer.

Once the researchers completed the evaluation process, collagen levels were then measured by a series of biochemical tests of patient’s tissue. The results of the test showed that autofluorescence could consistently assess burn wound healing process.

Collagen is a type of tissue protein which has the capacity to heal wounds.

Earlier the method was used to heal the wound in animals. But now, finally, the method is successfully tested in human beings too.

 As per one of the research members, the newuser-friendly- method is very effective and it only depends on excitation and emission of tissue fluorophores without the need of any external dye molecule. The method maintained tissue architecture during the healing assessment process.

The sponsorship for the study was carried out by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the research work was published in the Journal of Biophotonics.