Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) is an emerging technique for the assessment of burns in humans and interobserver differences have not been studied. The aim of this study was to compare assessments of perfusion images by different professional groups regarding (i) perfusion values and (ii) burn depth assessment. ⋯ Observers can reliably identify the same ROI, which results in observer-independent perfusion measurements, irrespective of burn experience. Extensive burn experience did not further improve burn depth assessment. The LSCI recommendation was more accurate in all professional groups. Introducing LSCI measurements would be likely improve early assessment of burns.
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Burn critical care represents a high impact population that may benefit from artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML). Acute kidney injury (AKI) recognition in burn patients could be enhanced by ML. The goal of this study was to determine the theoretical performance of ML in augmenting AKI recognition. ⋯ The performance of UOP and creatinine for predicting AKI could be enhanced by with a ML algorithm using a k-NN approach when NGAL is not available. Additional studies are needed to verify performance of ML for burn-related AKI.
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Multicenter Study
Health related quality of life 5-7 years after minor and severe burn injuries: a multicentre cross-sectional study.
Burn injury can affect health-related quality of life (HRQL). Knowledge concerning long-term HRQL in burn patients is limited. Therefore our aim was to evaluate long-term HRQL and to study predictors of impaired long-term HRQL. ⋯ The majority of patients experienced some problems with HRQL 5-7 years post burn. This emphasizes that burns can have a negative impact on an individual's HRQL, particularly in more severely burned patients, that persists for years. The HRQL dimensions most frequently affected include pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression. Patients with a prolonged hospital stay, females and older patients are at higher risk of poor HRQL in the long-term.
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Vascularity is an important parameter closely associated with the scar maturation. Reliable and accurate measurement of vascularity helps to monitor the scar change and adopt targeted interventions to prevent excessive scarring and achieve promising outcomes. However, there is no consensus on the assessment tools for the vascularity measurement in scars. This systematic review presents evidence on the available vascularity measurement tools. ⋯ Subjective scales are easy to use and have acceptable reliability to give a preliminary impression of the scar vascularity. Three types of objective devices are not equivalent and are mainly based on the blood flow and angiogenesis to quantify the scar vascularity.