A spline based method for assessment of wound images

Chronic wounds are often painful, debilitating and frequently present a major challenge to clinicians. For example, predicting the healing process may be difficult. Software was written to examine colour and appearance in the vicinity of the wound boundary. The technique was based on a spline delineation of the wound boundary. The software was applied to analyse the hue, saturation and intensity of 10 wound images acquired with a digital video camera. The images included a colour scale for reference. The system was used to investigate the differences of hue, saturation and intensity in three regions in the vicinity of the wound boundary. Our results indicate that there was small variation in the hue of the red colour patch compared with the overall variation in hue of the 10 images. For the majority of wounds, there was a clear trend in intensity and saturation in the boundary region.