Prognostic prospective of laser induced fluorescence as an objective tool to evaluate collagen deposition in thermal wounds: An ex vivo study

Thermal injuries are considered as the most frequent and dreadful forms of trauma. Quick and objective assessment of treatment regimen plays vital role in controlling morbidity and mortality. In the present work, we aimed to investigate the predicative potential of laser induced fluorescence (LIF) in assessing collagen synthesis during the wound healing progression following thermal injury. To this end, granulation tissues of thermal wounds before grafting were collected from the patients of age group 18- 60 years with prior consent. LIF measurements of the wound granulation tissues were carried out by exciting them with 325 nm He-Cd laser (2 mW power). Collagen intensity with respect to normalized NADH levels in each of the samples was computed and tabulated. In addition, biochemical estimation of the hydroxyproline was also carried out from the same granulation tissues. Spectroscopic assessment of the wound granulation tissues displayed varied collagen levels indicating different degree of healing. Likewise, biochemical estimation of granulation tissues exhibited a wide range of hydroxyproline levels. The findings of the present ex vivo study suggest that both the techniques are equally informative in evaluating collagen content in tissues. However, with LIF, it is more advantageous in the sense that it is fast, objective, cost effective as well as non-destructive method. Thus, it can be concluded that laser induced fluorescence has the potential to be used as an objective tool to qualitatively determine the collagen levels in wound granulation tissues and provide information helpful for making clinical decisions.