The Technology
Oxygen concentration in the skin (denoted as transcutaneous oxygen – TcpO2) has a significant diagnostic and therapeutic importance in many clinical situations. It is being used for monitoring the condition and assessment of healing potential of chronic wounds, diabetic feet, ulcers, skin grafts in plastic surgeries, burns, peripheral vascular disease, revascularization procedures, and many more. In all of these issues, oxygen plays a major role. Thus, other than evaluating the extent of the problem (often correlated with deficiency of oxygen), TcPO2 main importance is for determining the optimal treatment method. For example, checking if hyperbaric therapy cycles (using chambers with high oxygen pressure) can benefit or not. TcPO2 systems are also continuously used in ICU’s, NICU’s and sleep laboratories as an indicator for the trends of the oxygen partial pressure in the blood level to minimize the frequency of the invasive, painful blood gas analysis. Despite the great importance of the TcPO2, the clinical capability to quantify it has been limited. Current solutions involve electrochemical or optical sensors that require heating the skin to 40° – 45°C, which might cause erythema and burns. Hence, constant heat control and sites changing is required. Also, to keep reliable results, frequent calibrations and complicated maintenance procedures like re-membrane are required. Those limitations are a barrier for wider dissemination of TcPO2 monitors.Our product – the SkinOMeter, is a compact, reliable and simple-to-operate transcutaneous oxygen monitoring system based on Electron Spin Resonance (ESR). It includes a novel, miniature, non-invasive sensor that continuously and accurately monitors the Oxygen tension in the skin and the underlying tissue in an easy and intuitive way to allow real time measurements and immediate response in clinical and homecare applications. The SkinOMeter in contrary to current solutions, allows measurement of pointy objects including areas over the wound itself, without heating the skin, without requiring any calibration and without complicated maintenance operations.
When molecular oxygen diffuses naturally from the skin, our dedicated miniature sticker, made of paramagnetic crystals, interacts with it causing relaxation. The ESR probe measures the crystal relaxation time and from it obtains the oxygen concentration. This immediate and accurate method, which does not require heating, calibration or maintenance complications, makes it highly attractive for future clinical use.
Advantages
- Noninvasive – lower infection risk
- Doesn’t require heating
- High sensitivity and specificity
- Fast response time
- Direct measurement of tissue oxygen
- Compact device
- Doesn’t require calibration
Applications and Opportunities
- Transcutaneous and subcutaneous measurements of oxygen in the skin to evaluate wound healing – skin cancer, burns, diabetes etc.
- Assessment of the degree of peripheral vascular disease
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