Georg Paul Julius, Schmid Meret Emily, Zahia Sofia, Probst Sebastian, Cazzaniga Simone, Hunger Robert, Bossart Simon
Department of Dermatology, Inselspital University Hospital of Bern, University of Bern, 3010 Bern, Switzerland.
Imito AG, 8047 Zurich, Switzerland.
J Clin Med. 2024 Jun 20;13(12):3599. doi: 10.3390/jcm13123599.
: Chronic leg ulcers present a global challenge in healthcare, necessitating precise wound measurement for effective treatment evaluation. This study is the first to validate the "split-wound design" approach for wound studies using objective measures. We further improved this relatively new approach and combined it with a semi-automated wound measurement algorithm. : The algorithm is capable of plotting an objective halving line that is calculated by splitting the bounding box of the wound surface along the longest side. To evaluate this algorithm, we compared the accuracy of the subjective wound halving of manual operators of different backgrounds with the algorithm-generated halving line and the ground truth, in two separate rounds. : The median absolute deviation (MAD) from the ground truth of the manual wound halving was 2% and 3% in the first and second round, respectively. On the other hand, the algorithm-generated halving line showed a significantly lower deviation from the ground truth (MAD = 0.3%, < 0.001). : The data suggest that this wound-halving algorithm is suitable and reliable for conducting wound studies. This innovative combination of a semi-automated algorithm paired with a unique study design offers several advantages, including reduced patient recruitment needs, accelerated study planning, and cost savings, thereby expediting evidence generation in the field of wound care. Our findings highlight a promising path forward for improving wound research and clinical practice.
慢性腿部溃疡给医疗保健带来了全球性挑战，需要精确测量伤口以有效评估治疗效果。本研究首次使用客观测量方法验证了伤口研究中的“分割伤口设计”方法。我们进一步改进了这种相对较新的方法，并将其与半自动伤口测量算法相结合。该算法能够绘制一条客观的平分线，该平分线是通过沿着伤口表面的最长边分割边界框来计算的。为了评估该算法，我们在两轮独立实验中，将不同背景的人工操作者主观划分伤口的准确性与算法生成的平分线及真实情况进行了比较。人工划分伤口与真实情况的中位数绝对偏差（MAD）在第一轮和第二轮中分别为2%和3%。另一方面，算法生成的平分线与真实情况的偏差显著更低（MAD = 0.3%，< 0.001）。数据表明，这种伤口平分线算法适用于并可靠地用于伤口研究。这种半自动算法与独特研究设计的创新结合具有诸多优势，包括减少患者招募需求、加快研究规划和节省成本，从而加速伤口护理领域的证据生成。我们的研究结果为改进伤口研究和临床实践指明了一条充满希望的前进道路。
