Sensors In Bandage Can Track Healing of Wound

Even without removing the bandage, a wearable sensor can track the healing of ulcers, sores, and other chronic skin wounds. The research was conducted at the Skoltech and the University of Texas at Austin.

The study was published in the journal ACS Sensors.

Novel Bandage That Can Repair Fractures
Researchers have developed a novel biomaterial like a bandage. Stem cells and bone cells are grown on the bandage and stuck on the fracture. They can speed the process of healing.

‘Sensors in bandages detect biomarkers like pyocyanin, nitric oxide, and uric acid, which can track the healing of ulcers, sores, and other chronic skin wounds like diabetic foot ulcers or pressure ulcers.’
Read More..

Tweet it Now

Chronic wounds like diabetic foot ulcers or pressure ulcers heal slowly and can be difficult to manage for healthcare professionals and patients. Doctors and nurses have to remove the bandages covering the wound to monitor the healing process and determine the treatment options.

This often hurts the patient and results in damage to the recovering wound, hospital visits for other bandages, and to avoid further infections. Certain wounds require visual inspection and further tests like tissue biopsies, surface swabs, or testing for pathogens are needed which are costly and invasive procedures. These procedures take many days and can fail to produce useful treatment directions.

Wearable sensors monitor certain biomarkers during the healing process.

Color-changing Bandages Treat Bacterial Infections
Scientists have developed color-changing bandages that sense drug-resistant and drug-sensitive bacteria in wounds and treat them accordingly.

In the new study, the Russia-US team, led by Skoltech provost, Professor Keith Stevenson, explored various electroanalytical methods that show promising clinical applications because of their relative simplicity, sensitivity, durability, and other attractive characteristics.

Stevenson said, “ Earlier stages of our research involved characterizing the sensor performance and demonstrating the sensitive and selective multianalyte detection in complex biofluid simulants that closely mimic real biological environments.”

New Bandage Material can Stop Bleeding without Sticking to the Wound
New bandage coated with silicone and carbon nanofibres can stop bleeding and also prevent the bandage or dressing from sticking to the wound.

To test the sensitivity of the sensor, a simulated wound environment was developed, and three critical biomarkers were used. These biomarkers included pyocyanin produced by Pseudomonas aeroginosa, a bacterium which infects wounds, uric acid a metabolite which is related to the severity of a wound, nitric oxide released by the immune system in response to bacterial infections.

All these biomarkers respond to electrical activity and hence can be detected by the sensor.

New Spray-on Bandages Created
A portable electrospinning device with a confined electric field that can safely deposit bandages and drugs directly onto biological surfaces has been developed by scientists.

The tests conducted showed that the sensors limits of detection and the concentration range where a sensor produces useful quantitative results were within the biologically relevant concentrations. This shows that the sensor can be used for wound monitoring in clinical settings.

The sensors were also tested in cell cultures where it successfully detected pyocyanin from P.aeruginosa, nitric oxide from macrophages (immune cells that destroy bacteria). The sensor was also able to detect the suppression of pyocyanin produced by the bacteria due to silver, which is an antimicrobial agent.

Professor Keith Stevenson said, "The next step is to utilize this sensor technology for in vivo studies and real-time monitoring of wound treatment effectiveness on human subjects in clinical settings”

Source-Medindia