Abstract

In case of a second degree bum, the depth of the injury is an important indicator for whether the wound will be able to heal spontaneously or whether intervention in form of grafting is required. The burn depth is extremely difficult to assess by visual inspection. As such, a technique capable of quantitative assessment of bum injuries is highly desirable.[1] Bums can be described as a two-layered structure, consisting of a layer of thermally denatured tissue on top of a layer of viable tissue. When harmonically modulated light is injected into tissue, diffuse photon-density waves (DPDW) are formed as a consequence of scattering. The propagation properties of these waves depend on the optical properties of the tissue, described by the absorption coefficient μ_a and the reduced scattering coefficient μ′_a. Since the optical properties of tissue change under the influence of heat, the DPDWs propagate at different phase velocities in the two layers, and have different attenuation. As a result of interference, the layering of the structure becomes visible in the diffuse reflectance measured at the surface of the injured tissue.[2]

© 2000 IEEE