Medical Need:
Diabetic foot ulcers can have a significant negative impact on the health outcomes and mortality of patients with diabetes. Because of existing technological limitations, clinical practices still rely on visual observation and clinical examination of the wound, leading to poor prediction of healing and amputation survival even by very experienced clinicians.
Diabetic Foot Ulcer Monitoring
Near InfraRed Layered Imaging of Tissue Hemodynamics (NIR-LITH)
According to the 2020 American National Diabetes Statistics report, 130,000 amputations in diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) had to be performed that year. Infection of DFUs is common and one of the most frequent contributing factors that lead to amputation. People with diabetes often require multiple amputations during the same hospitalization or calendar year because the surgical site does not heal and re-infection and/or inadequate functional perfusion necessitate additional surgeries and amputations.
Vivonics is developing an innovative optical system that can image a DFU in three dimensions, allowing a clinician to measure the full extent of the ulcer and track its healing over time. With this technology, doctors will have a method for rapidly and objectively identifying the presence and measuring the size of DFUs so they can ensure that patients get the care they need while reducing the risk of unnecessary amputations.
Disclaimer: Research reported in this summary was supported by the National Institute Of Diabetes And Digestive And Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R43DK137630. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
(Award R43DK137630 is titled Near InfraRed Layered Imaging of Tissue Hemodynamics (NIR-LITH))
Product under development, not yet FDA approved