Scientists consider 100,000 to 1 million cells per gram an important threshold for bacteria in a wound: Below that limit, they are unlikely to cause problems; Above it, the infection becomes dangerous. Healing slows down. The bacterial population skyrocketed and eventually formed a small, biofilm “village” that antibiotics couldn’t penetrate. Biofilm enzymes break down fats and skin. “These biofilms are the devil because to destroy a biofilm, you actually have to scrape it off,” says Mills.
Based on tissue samples, these sensors can detect infection hours before the biofilm starts – by the time the population reaches that 1 million mark, the indicator will turn green. Hour It may not seem like a lot of time, but it’s much better than the standard three days between changes. “All hell can break” in a few hours, much less three days, says Mills. And people may not feel something is wrong until it’s too late, he added, because people with chronic wounds from diabetes or bed sores also face nerve damage. or emotionless.
Gayle Gordillo, chief of plastic surgery and director of wound services at the Indiana University School of Medicine, said the threshold of 1 million cells per gram is only moderately sensitive, but it still beats current methods. Right now, clinics must take a sample of bacteria from the wound tissue and wait for the culture to grow in the lab. That takes at least about a day. (And some biofilms will stubbornly refuse to grow in lab cultures, causing false negatives.) “I tell people, we have 19th-century microbiological tools. And biofilms are a matter of the 21st century,” said Gordillo. The new sensor is “faster, so it’s cool,” she said.
Gordillo notes that most — if not all—Electronic wounds contain biofilms. So she imagines the sensors will be most useful on wounds that have been thoroughly cleaned and now need to be monitored as they heal. “It was like an alarm bell,” she said. “It will let you know when the infection comes back.
Goluch said that because CO2 very basic to life, it is a powerful indicator for detecting various types of infections. But he notes that it’s very common and a living patient will also be emitting it from their cells, so the sensor would have to be tuned to avoid false positives.
Mills had some ideas for how doctors and patients might use these devices. For example, most people dealing with chronic wounds are outpatients, going to the doctor once or twice a week just to check for an infection. Mills says an infection sensor could cut the frequency of those visits, and Goluch agrees that keeping the bandage on for longer would also reduce the risk of exposing the wound to bacteria.
“Another area where this is really valuable is being able to quantify how effective a drug is at treating infections,” says Goluch in a doctor’s office or as a tool. research for clinical trials. “It’s promising enough that these researchers or another group should take the next step.”
Mills’ team is now hoping to work with companies that already sell wound dressings to test the idea in human clinical trials. They are also working to attach additional sensors to detect other chemicals such as sulfides or nitrogenous amines, indicating specific types of infection.
There’s still a long way to go before the sensors are ready for medical use, but Mills is proud that their simple design has worked so far. “Sometimes, the simple ideas are really groundbreaking,” he says.
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