In a novel research a Swiss company has developed a device in which its camera shows how the blood is circulating through the skin. The researchers designed the camera in order to evaluate the degree and sternness of burns. The gadget uses what is called laser Doppler imaging for its functioning.
The gadget has been tested by burn specialists and surgeons from CHUV University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland. The gadget called EasyLDI is connected to a stretchy arm and is positioned over the burn area with the camera facing the burn. On the other side of the device there is a video screen on which color differences show variations in the intensity of blood circulation.
EasyLDI has been developed by Aimago, a start-up company based at the Swiss university, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. The gadget functions by sacking laser beams at the skin which are reflected by red blood cells in small vessels in the skin.
The movement of the red blood cells results in a small shift in the frequency of the light because it impacts upon the cells. These Doppler shifts which the gadget identified and transforms them into color variations on the screen. The camera can deliver more than twelve images in a second.
It means users can detect the heart beat effect of the patient in the circulation images. While the major use of this device is for burns victims. The makers of gadget say it could also be used in reconstructive surgery to resolve the feasibility of skin tissue prior to it is shifted from one part of the body to another.
According lead researcher Michael Friedrich of Aimago, red means high blood flow, blue means low blood flow. The specialist can use this information to see if the burnt tissue still has blood supply or not. When, burnt tissue has no blood supply it cannot recover, and is going to die, so skin grafting is required in that case.
But if the skin is perfusing means blood is still flowing through it, then it is going to cure impulsively without scarring. Greg Williams, head of the burns unit from Chelsea and Westminster Hospital informed that his hospital was one of several in the UK already using a rival laser Doppler imager built by Moor Instruments. This was recently approved by NICE.
source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health