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The handheld THz Scanner is shown in operation. Photo Credit: Terahertz Biophotonics Laboratory, Stony Brook University |
Stony Brook Engineers Employ New Device and Neural Networks with Terahertz Spectroscopy
An important component to a more successful treatment course for burns is correctly assessing them, and current methods are not accurate enough. A team of Stony Brook University researchers believe they created a new method to significantly improve burn assessment. They are employing a physics-based neural network model that uses terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) data for non-invasive burn assessment. The team combines the approach with a handheld imaging device that they developed specifically for fast THz-TDS imaging of burn injuries. Details of their method are published in a paper in Biomedical Optics Express.
Studies have shown that the accuracy of burn diagnosis is only about 60 to 75 percent when trying to decide which one of the burns needs surgical intervention (skin grafting) or which burns can heal spontaneously. The Stony Brook team has found with their method using THz-TDS — broadly defined as detecting and measuring properties of matter with picosecond short pulses of electromagnetic fields — that THz spectroscopic imaging can increase the accuracy rate of burn diagnosis and classification to approximately 93 percent.