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Review
. 2021 Jun;10(6):317-327.
doi: 10.1089/wound.2019.1103. Epub 2020 Jul 7.

Diagnostics for Wound Infections

Shuxin Li  1 , Paul Renick  1 , Jon Senkowsky  2 , Ashwin Nair  3 , Liping Tang  1
Affiliations
Review

Diagnostics for Wound Infections

Shuxin Li et al. Adv Wound Care (New Rochelle). 2021 Jun.

Abstract

Significance: Infections can significantly delay the healing process in chronic wounds, placing an enormous economic burden on health care resources. Identification of infection biomarkers and imaging modalities to observe and quantify them has seen progress over the years. Recent Advances: Traditionally, clinicians determine the presence of infection through visual observation of wounds and confirm their diagnosis through wound culture. Many laboratory markers, including C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, presepsin, and bacterial protease activity, have been quantified to assist diagnosis of infection. Moreover, imaging modalities like plain radiography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound imaging, spatial frequency domain imaging, thermography, autofluorescence imaging, and biosensors have emerged for real-time wound infection diagnosis and showed their unique advantages in deeper wound infection diagnosis. Critical Issues: While traditional diagnostic approaches provide valuable information, they are time-consuming and depend on clinicians' experiences. There is a need for noninvasive wound infection diagnostics that are highly specific, rapid, and accurate, and do not require extensive training. Future Directions: While innovative diagnostics utilizing various imaging instrumentation are being developed, new biomarkers have been investigated as potential indicators for wound infection. Products may be developed to either qualitatively or quantitatively measure these biomarkers. This review summarizes and compares all available diagnostics for wound infection, including those currently used in clinics and still under development. This review could serve as a valuable resource for clinicians treating wound infections as well as patients and wound care providers who would like to be informed of the recent developments.

Keywords: biosensor; laboratory diagnostic kits; visual observation; wound culture; wound imaging modalities; wound infection diagnostics.

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Conflict of interest statement

Tang has a potential research conflict of interest due to a financial interest with Progenitec, Inc. A management plan has been created to preserve objectivity in research, in accordance with UTA policy. P.R. has a potential research conflict of interest due to employment as a full-time staff scientist at Smith & Nephew, plc. and his graduate studies are funded through an employee tuition reimbursement program. A management plan has been created to preserve objectivity in research in accordance with UTA policy. No competing financial interests exist for the other authors. The content of this article was expressly written by the author(s) listed. No ghostwriters were used to write this article.

Figures

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Liping Tang, PhD
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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