CW Optics Begins Trial Of Wound Imaging Technology For Diabetics
CW Optics, Inc., a privately held company specializing in design and development of biophotonic devices, has begun a clinical trial at Richmond’s Chippenham and Johnston-Willis (CJW) Medical Center to investigate the safety and efficacy of WoundImager®, an advanced optical imaging device for monitoring the effectiveness of therapeutic management of chronic wounds caused by diabetes.
An important factor in wound management is the ability to assess health conditions of the wound site. The WoundImager® applies CW Optics’ patented laser speckle imaging (LSI) technology to measure blood flow velocity of wound sites. During the clinical trials, the WoundImager® will be used to monitor the healing process of chronic foot wounds of two groups of patients, patients who are undergoing Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) and patients who receive standard wound care only.
“Emerging research in wound healing suggests that clinical correlation of skin and wound blood flow with biomarkers of healing may provide new surrogate endpoints for wounds managed with HBOT. LSI technology has the potential to provide this diagnostic link for quantitative wound assessment that may establish a new benchmark for wounds treated with HBOT,” according to Joseph Boykin, Jr., MD, FACS, Medical Director of CJW Wound Healing Center and Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Virginia Commonwealth. Dr. Boykin is the clinical principal investigator on this project.
Diabetics often develop chronic, non-healing wounds, especially on their lower legs and feet. As many as 10% of all diabetics, about 1.6 million Americans, have chronic wounds, resulting in extreme pain, tissue damage, nerve damage, or amputation of the affected limb. HBOT is a common treatment for these requiring 20 sessions of 90-min each. During treatment, the patient is enclosed in a hyperbaric chamber, under 2-3 atmospheres of oxygen. The increased pressure and oxygen improve blood flow and promote wound healing.
The WoundImager® can be used to monitor other wounds, such as the wound in the mouth of oral cancer patients, transplanted flaps of patients undergoing flap-transfer surgeries.
More information on this trial can be found at http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01139567 and
http://www.woundimager.com/.
