Medical apparatus method for assessing the severity of certain skin traumas

Claim 1

A method of objective analysis of the condition of traumatized surface tissue of a patient, comprising the steps of: introducing a tracer dye into the patient; scanning the surface area of said traumatized surface tissue with a television camera for about 1-20 minutes after introduction of the dye to detect the rate of non-reflective perceptible extrinsic changes in the surface area due to the initial appearance of the dye; recording analog signals from the television camera on a video recorder; digitizing a pre-selected plurality of static images on the video recording and storing the digitized data for each of said plurality of images in an electronic memory; computer processing of the digitized signals by systematically comparing consecutive corresponding digital data from the stored digital data representing the plurality of static images and calculating the rate of change of surface area appearance of corresponding sections of surface area of the plurality of static images and then storing the new digital data; computer generating a two-dimensional map of the traumatized surface tissue by first assigning a color code to each of a predetermined plurality of change rates and then generating a two-dimensional color coded mapping of the traumatized surface tissue with each color representing an assigned change rate; and displaying the two-dimensional color coded map of the traumatized surface tissue on a color display monitor.

Claim 2

A method of objective analysis of the condition of traumatized surface tissue of a patient, comprising the steps of: introducing a tracer dye into the patient; scanning the surface area of said traumatized surface tissue with a television camera for about 1-20 minutes after introduction of the dye to detect the rate of non-reflective perceptible extrinsic changes in the surface area due to the initial appearance of the dye; recording analog signals from the television camera on a video recorder; digitizing a pre-selected plurality of static images on the video recording and storing the digitized data for each of said plurality of images in an electronic memory; computer processing of the digitized signals by systematically comparing consecutive corresponding digital data from the stored digital data representing the plurality of static images and calculating the rate of change of surface area appearance of corresponding sections of surface area of the plurality of static images and then storing the new digital data; computer generating a two-dimensional map of the traumatized surface tissue by first assigning a color code to each of a predetermined plurality of change rates and then generating a two-dimensional color coded mapping of the traumatized surface tissue with each color representing an assigned change rate; and displaying the two-dimensional color coded map of the traumatized surface tissue on a color display monitor.

Claim 6

A method of objective analysis of the severity of a burn to surface tissue of a patient, comprising the steps of: introducing a tracer dye into the patient; scanning the surface area of the burned surface tissue with a television camera for about 1-20 minutes after introduction of the dye to detect the rate of non-reflective perceptible extrinsic changes in the surface area due to the initial appearance of the dye within the burn area; recording analog signals from the television camera on a video recorder adapted to stop at selected points on a recorded tape and to display a static image of a singular frame of the video record; digitizing a pre-selected plurality of static images on the video recording and storing the digitized data for each of said plurality of images in an electronic memory; computer processing of the digitized signals by systematically comparing consecutive corresponding digital data from the stored digital data representing the plurality of static images and calculating the rate of change of surface area appearance of corresponding sections of surface area of the plurality of static images and then storing the new digital data; computer generating a two-dimensional map of the burn area by assigning a color code to each of a predetermined plurality of change rates and generating a two-dimensional color coded mapping of the burn area with each color representing an assigned change rate; and displaying the two-dimensional color coded map of the burn area on a color display monitor.

Claim 7

A method of objective analysis of the severity of a burn to surface tissue of a patient, comprising the steps of: introducing a tracer dye into the patient; scanning the surface area of the burned surface tissue with a television camera for about 1-20 minutes after introduction of the dye to detect the rate of non-reflective perceptible extrinsic changes in the surface area due to the initial appearance of the dye within the burn area; recording analog signals from the television camera on a video recorder adapted to stop at selected points on a recorded tape and to display a static image of a singular frame of the video record; digitizing a pre-selected plurality of static images on the video recording and storing the digitized data for each of said plurality of images in an electronic memory; computer processing of the digitized signals by systematically comparing consecutive corresponding digital data from the stored digital data representing the plurality of static images and calculating the rate of change of surface area appearance of corresponding sections of surface area of the plurality of static images and then storing the new digital data; computer generating a two-dimensional map of the burn area by assigning a color code to each of a predetermined plurality of change rates and generating a two-dimensional color coded mapping of the burn area with each color representing an assigned change rate; and displaying the two-dimensional color coded map of the burn area on a color display monitor.