Just-in-time burn severity assessment plays a vital role in burn treatment and care. However, it is still difficult to quantitatively and promptly evaluate burn severity by existing medical imaging methods via initial burn depth measurement since burn wounds are usually dynamically developed. As an elastic skeleton of skin, the degree of conformational changes of collagen fibers caused by overheating can reflect the burn severity in a timelier manner. Herein, the polarized photoacoustic technique (PPAT) for just-in-time quantitative evaluation of burn severity via collagen fiber anisotropy assessment is proposed. First, phantom experiments demonstrate the ability of PPAT for deep imaging in a transport mean free path and accurately quantify changes in microstructural order by thermal damage. Then, the Pearson correlation coefficient of the PPAT in assessing burn severity is shown to be up to 0.95, validated by burn skin samples. The PPAT provides a just-in-time quantitative strategy for burn severity evaluation.

中文翻译：

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通过偏振光声成像表征胶原纤维各向异性，用于及时定量评估烧伤严重程度

及时的烧伤严重程度评估在烧伤治疗和护理中起着至关重要的作用。然而，由于烧伤创面通常是动态发展的，因此现有的医学成像方法仍然难以通过初始烧伤深度测量来定量、及时地评估烧伤严重程度。胶原纤维作为皮肤的弹性骨架，过热引起的构象变化程度可以更及时地反映烧伤的严重程度。在此，提出了通过胶原纤维各向异性评估对烧伤严重程度进行即时定量评估的偏振光声技术 (PPAT)。首先，幻影实验证明了 PPAT 在传输平均自由路径中进行深度成像并准确量化热损伤引起的微观结构顺序变化的能力。然后，PPAT 在评估烧伤严重程度时的 Pearson 相关系数高达 0.95，经烧伤皮肤样本验证。PPAT 为烧伤严重程度评估提供了及时的定量策略。