Monitoring wound progression to healing in diabetic foot ulcers using three-dimensional wound imaging

Abstract

Aim: 3D wound imaging has provided clinicians with even greater wound measurement options. No data is available to guide clinicians as to which 3D measurements may yield the most reflective marker of wound progression to healing. Method: A prospective pilot study was undertaken to assess the accuracy of five 3D wound measurements that best reflect metrics of interest to clinicians. Twenty-one diabetic foot ulcers were enrolled from initial ulcer presentation, through to healing. The relationship between mean wound healing measurement variables was examined using linear regression and Pearsons correlation coefficient, in addition to assessing clinician inter-rater reliability of measurements using Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC). Results: Statistical analysis demonstrated a linear healing slope for each wound measurement as having a value greater than R 0.70 and a statistical significance of p = 0.0001. This suggests that all five wound measurements are useful prognostic markers of wound progression to healing. Low variability of measurements between users indicates good inter-observer reliability. Conclusion: 3D wound measurements demonstrate a linear correlation between the measurement and time to healing. This suggests they could be effective prognostic markers of a wounds progression to healing and closure. It may also provide important early identification of wounds not responding to standard care. Larger studies are required to validate our results.