Project Details
Projekt
BURNTwo - Burn Wound Assessment Using Microwave Imaging Radar Based Near Field Techniques - Phase II
Subject Area
Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering
Orthopaedics, Traumatology, Reconstructive Surgery
Orthopaedics, Traumatology, Reconstructive Surgery
Term
from 2015 to 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 272145185
While accurately and quickly determining the severity of burn injuries is extremely challenging, it is a vital prerequisite for selecting a viable wound treatment plan in the sense of a conservative or surgical therapy. Diagnosis is complex as there are no medical diagnostic systems available for imaging burn injuries that have proven themselves clinically. In the BURNT research project, that kicked off in the first phase of the SPP (Essence), microwave-based systems for contactless imaging of burn wounds were investigated and a leading international position was attained in this field. However, during the BURNT experiments it became clear that ex-vivo evaluation techniques – which are state of the art – are unsuitable for assessing the potential capabilities of the proposed diagnostic techniques. One of the findings of the research was that, while pronounced redness of the skin could be detected in an in-vivo experiment, a burn on dead skin was very difficult to detect in an ex-vivo experiment. This means that the only way to study the capabilities of microwave-based burn-wound diagnostics is with in-vivo experiments. In-vivo tests carried out to date in BURNT on the ears of mice models delivered some promising outcomes that were however inconclusive: the extremely small mice ears are at the resolution and operating limits of state-of-the-art imaging technology. This proposed follow-on project BURNTwo is based directly on the results of BURNT, and aims to bridge the known knowledge gaps, address the known issues and advance the state of the art. Specifically, there will be two strands to BURNTwo: First, the state-of-the-art millimeter-wave microscopy should be upgraded with, among other things, smaller, improved, higher-resolution near-field scanning probes to improve the expressiveness of in-vivo experiments with mice models. And, as was the case in BURNT, fluorescence microscopy images should be used as a reference to evaluate the relations between microcirculation, permittivity and degree of burn. Second, a real-time millimeter-wave-imaging system developed by the applicants with Rohde & Schwarz should be modified and the reconstruction algorithms adapted and optimized for skin imaging. The intention here is to map human burn wounds for the first time worldwide in a clinical setting with millimeter-wave technology and to monitor the wound healing process. The applicants expect very significant outcomes – that will be worldclass as well – from the research efforts and in-vivo experiments in BURNTwo with regard to prospective use cases and the diagnostic value of the microwave burn-wound diagnostics..
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Co-Investigators
Professor Dr.-Ing. Helmut Ermert; Professor Dr. Marcus Lehnhardt
