SnapshotNIR and measuring StO2 in patients of varying skin tones.
Poor oxygenation makes it very difficult for a wound to heal. What lurks beneath the surface can often be more detrimental than what is seen with the eye. Kent’s SnapshotNIR® penetrates below the surface, utilizing near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to determine tissue oxygen saturation (St02), a key indicator of tissue health. How exactly does NIRS measure StO2? The spectral signatures of oxy and deoxyhemoglobin are well documented within the near-infrared region. Using several wavelengths of NIR light, Snapshot can measure relative amounts of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin based on these known spectral signatures and compute a resulting tissue oxygenation ratio. What makes SnapshotNIR unique is that, instead of requiring contact with tissue, it works with reflected light making the device completely non-invasive. This is especially important when looking at chronic wounds because measurements can be taken within the wound bed as well as the periwound in a single captured image.
With this innovative technology, clinicians can reduce complications and improve outcomes in patients by delivering more informed and appropriate interventions. Documenting the wound healing process with SnapshotNIR can result in a significant reduction in healthcare costs. At Kent Imaging, we are constantly evolving our technology to improve the solutions we deliver. The ability of our medical imaging device to track healing in the majority of patients, no matter their skin tone, was one of those critical advancements.
What makes it difficult to get data from people with higher melanin content?
Four years ago, researchers at Kent were working on a problem that they shared with none other than Apple, specifically, the popular Apple Watch. The light properties that were affecting the performance of the Apple Watch worn by people with wrist tattoos or darker skin also made it challenging to build a medical imaging device for the measurement of tissue oxygenation in patients with higher melanin content.
Melanin absorbs light; it absorbs more heavily in the visible wavelengths than in the near-infrared but NIR light is still subject to attenuation from melanin. The higher the melanin content, the less light is reflected back to Snapshot’s sensor.
How has Snapshot improved to have better results for darker-skinned patients?
SnapshotNIR V3.0, the newest advancement in tissue oxygenation imaging, has improved its use for darker-skinned patients by accounting for melanin in many patients (Fitzpatrick Type V). The objective of the latest improvements to SnapshotNIR was to increase the signal-to-noise ratio to better distinguish melanin from oxy and deoxy hemoglobin. SnapshotNIR has updated this ratio which means that we have increased the amount of signal we get back, allowing us to better calculate St02 in many more patients. The melanin correction is completely automatic on the Snapshot device so there is no need for clinicians to decide when to correct or not.
Healthcare should be inclusive for all. Making it such, the Kent device is available and usable on nearly all people, providing a better universal standard of care. It also ensures that physicians can use the tools they need regardless of bodily factors.
Our goal at Kent is to reduce complications and improve outcomes for every body.
The low-cost and easy-to-use SnapshotNIR is a completely non-invasive way to track the healing process. SnapshotNIR eliminates the need for patient contact or the injected dyes required by many other technologies. Capture diagnostic insight into the availability of oxygenated blood in tissue to support improved decision-making throughout the dynamic treatment pathway – before, during, and after wound or surgical care.
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