The Basics of Laser Scanners

During the end of this week and the beginning of the next, I will be spending time learning how to use the laser scanner and becoming acquainted with the programs used to produce 3D images. 

Let's first discuss how a laser scanner works.
Laser scanners let out beams of controlled lasers that take a distance measurement to an object. This means that they can create an accurate rendering of the outer surface of any model. 

Laser scanners are found everywhere, from police laser speed guns, to the cashier scanners in grocery stores.
For the purpose of my project, I will be looking at how they can be applied in the medical field.
 

https://virulentwordofmouse.wordpress
.com/2011/07/04/the-grocery-scanner-and-
barcode-economy/

http://www.stealthveil.com/guides/police-laser

This week I read some journal articles on how researchers have used laser scanners in relation to wounds in the past. 

One study focused on the use of digital image analysis to assess wound area and volume. In this paper, physicians reported a 95% confidence interval and there was no statistical significance difference between their measurement of the wounds. The full article can be found here. 

Another used Laser Doppler Imaging to assess the severity of pediatric burns. Burn outcomes are predicted accurately by physical examination of a physician 50 to 65% of the time. However, the Laser Doppler Imaging showed an overall accuracy of 96%. The full article can be found here. 

I'm really excited to finally start using the equipment.
I'll let you know how it goes next week!

Types of Wounds

There are several ways wounds can be classified. 

Acute and chronic describes the amount of time it takes for a wound to heal. Acute wounds go through the normal healing process and show signs of repair within four weeks. Chronic wounds take much longer to heal because of complications such as infection or diabetes. 

There are six basic types of wounds: 

1. Abrasions occur when skin is rubbed or scraped off by friction.

2. Incisions are made by cutting with a sharp object. This includes wounds created during surgery. Incisions are not likely to become infected since the free flow of blood washes out most microorganisms. 

3. Lacerations are wounds that were torn by blunt objects. 

4. An injury to the skin due to heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, or radiation is called a burn. 

5. Puncture wounds leave a small hole while penetrating into the tissue. 

6. Avulsions, a tearing away of tissue from a body part, always involve heavy bleeding. 

All wounds either fall under these categories or are a mixture of these types. 

I will be focusing on wounds that have an outer manifestation. This is because laser scanners are used to create models of the outside surface of an object.
The first four in the list have the greatest applicability for this project. 

For my next post, I will go into greater detail about the basics of laser scanners and how they have been used in the past for medical purposes. 

Week 2: The Finished Wound Models *Graphic Image Warning*

This post contains images of open wounds to compare to the models. If gory images make you queasy, you should probably stop here. 

The Steps of Wound Healing

Before we dive into more complex topics, let's take a closer look at the typical process by which wounds heal. 

Skin is our largest organ, spanning about 20 square feet. This essential barrier protects our bodies from harmful elements, allows for temperature control, and facilitates sensations like heat and cold. 

There are three layers of skin as shown in the diagram below. 

http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/picture-of-the-skin

The epidermis is made of tight junctions, providing a water-proof barrier, and contains the skin's pigment. The dermis contains hair follicles, sweat glands, and a bunch of connective tissue. The bottom layer, the hypodermis, has the heaviest concentration of blood vessels and fat.

The severity of the cut can be assessed by how deep it goes into these layers. 

Wound healing occurs in three stages: inflammation, proliferation, and maturation. 

Inflammation occurs when macrophages, also known as white blood cells, are rushed to the cut. The white blood cells eat away at any debris and pathogens that could enter the body. 

During proliferation, the macrophages create a thin extracellular matrix as a temporary barrier. They excrete fibroblast growth factor to produce fibroblasts. Fibroblasts make the components needed for the extracellular matrix. Specialized fibroblasts, called myofibroblasts, act like muscle cells to close the skin. 

Maturation deals with healing under the epidermis. During a process called angiogenesis, macrophages secrete chemicals that promote blood vessels to grow rapidly in the area that is being repaired. When the wound is completely healed, the number of blood vessels reduce to a normal amount.

I hope this post was informative and gave a good introduction to the specifics of my project. Feel free to ask any questions about this process or anything else in the comments!

 

Week 1: An Unexpected Art Project

My first week at Phoenix Children's Hospital was full of new and exciting experiences.

A lot of my time was spent becoming acquainted with all the resources a huge hospital like this has to offer, apart from the essential coffee machines. One of these resources is the Emily Center, a library built so families can have easy and free access to information about their child's health. In addition to that, all the researchers, nurses, doctors, and other staff at the hospital are extremely friendly and ready to answer any questions I may have. 

Before I can start scanning wounds on actual patients, I had to find a way to conceptualize how the laser scanner wound models would look, followed by submitting proper regulatory proposals to ensure patient safety and privacy. This puts me onto the art project alluded to in the title. 

The materials I started with were a suture pad, bottle of liquid silicone, stacks of two-ply toilet paper, and blood paste. After adding layers of liquid silicone and toilet paper,  the model looked like this:

The next step was to cut through the silicone and suture padding to produce the actual wound. After the texture was just right, I added extreme amounts of blood paste which stained my fingers a pretty ominous color. 

Next week, I will try to smooth out the edges of the wound to look more like skin. I will try to use molding wax makeup to achieve this, but I am wondering if super glue will be enough to hold the wax down. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a picture of the finished product in my next blog post, so stay tuned. 

I will end this blog post with a quote that stuck with me. As I was explaining my project and methods to the other members of the lab, my external advisor called it a "redefinition of the language of wound healing." I will use that eloquent and accurate rendering of my senior project as I embark on new tasks over these next few weeks. 

Until next time! 

How The Body Heals

Hi, my name is Asfia Numani and I am a high school senior at BASIS Phoenix. 

As a senior at BASIS, I have been given the opportunity to spend my third trimester pursuing a research project pertaining to my interest in medicine. This blog will relay my experiences and discoveries as I complete my senior project, "Laser Scanning the Healing Process".

Wound healing is one of the miraculous processes the human body is able to perform. However, doctors face a challenge when assessing how well a patient is recovering from an injury. At this point in time, all they can do is look for signs like discoloration and swelling to determine whether something has gone wrong with repair. Most of the time, the culprit is infection. By the time outer signs manifest, it is much harder to treat. 

For my internship, I will be working with Dr. Justin Ryan at Phoenix Children's Hospital's Cardiac 3D Lab, using a laser scanner to create models at different stages of the healing process. The goal is to discover new symptoms and indications of how well a laceration is mending. I will then compile the information I gather in a way that is useful for physicians. 

Here is a link to my proposal: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12D7pb4wiLAVMCNbovi4vjuLL1CVAM8eVh09aMVcUrZg/edit?usp=sharing

(phoenixchildrens.org)

For those of you who will follow my blog regularly, I hope you enjoy reading about my project. You can subscribe through email in the top right corner. 

I'm really excited to get started!