The use of medical thermal imaging in assessing the dynamics of healing of pressure ulcers in patients with severe brain damage

Patients with severe brain damage often develop pressure ulcers (PU). The phases of the wound process significantly extend in time due to the underlying disease, severity of the condition and metabolic changes. Medical thermal imaging can be used to assess the level of PU microcirculation.

Aims: to study the possibility of using medical thermal imaging to predict the course of PU in patients after severe brain damage.

Methods: 38 ICU patients after brain injury and stage III–IV PU (25 men, 13 women, mean age 59±17 years). The series of thermograms (native image, after the “cold test” and 3 minutes after) were recorded before treatment and after 21 days. We used an NEC ThermoTracer TH 9100 thermal imager.

Results. We assessed the minimum/maximum overall temperatures and in the 1st–4th quartiles. With a positive outcome, the temperatures Q3-Q4 were higher (35.1 C–37.6 C versus 34.8 C–36.7 C for a negative outcome) and the lower thresholds of all quartiles. We hypothesized that a sign of PU healing is a narrowing of the range of temperature points on the surface of the wound. We used a point system for assessing the dynamics of temperature parameters, then checked the model using ROC analysis: the AUC was 0.932 (0.81–1.0), which indicates the high quality. The best ratio of sensitivity and specificity (0.81; 0.83) corresponds to a cut-off point of 9.5.

Conclusion. The use of medical thermal imaging makes it possible to objectively assess the level of blood supply to the PU in patients after severe brain damage, as well as the prognosis of further wound healing.

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