The practical application of reflectance spectrophotometry for the demonstration of haemoglobin and its degradation in bruises.

ABSTRACT:

Aims

To develop a non-invasive method to demonstrate the presence of haemoglobin and its degradation products in bruises in live human subjects for the purposes of objectively assisting in the determination of the age of a bruise.

Methods

The cuvette holder unit of a Cary 100 Bio UV-Visible Spectrophotometer was replaced with the manufacture's fibre optic cable and optical reflectance probe. The probe was placed on the skin surface. The absorption spectrum from 780 to 380 nm was collected and transformed into the first derivative. Calculation of the first derivative permits absorption attributed to haemoglobin degradation (primarily to bilirubin, but also haemosiderin) to be separated from absorption by haemoglobin. First derivative and colorimetry values, expressed as CIEL*

SUBMITTER: Hughes VK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1770270 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature