A PRELIMINARY-STUDY ON P-31 NMR-SPECTROSCOPY - A POWERFUL TOOL FOR WOUND ANALYSIS USING HIGH-ENERGY PHOSPHATES

Venous ulcerations affect 500,000 patients at a cost of 1 billion doll ars per year in the United States. Theories explaining the disease lac k a unifying biochemical model. P-31 NMR spectroscopy has been used to detect and quantify high energy phosphates in various tissue samples. We utilized this technique to analyze venous ulcerations in this stud y. Biopsy samples were taken from four patients with venous ulcers. In addition, non-ulcerated skin samples from 10 patients undergoing abov e the knee amputations for non-reconstructible vascular disease, and t hree non-ischemic skin samples were all analyzed by P-31 NMR and stand ard histology. Venous ulcer samples demonstrated a significant (p<0.05 ) decrease in Phosphocreatine and ATP. Wound healing is an energy depe ndent process; however, chronic venous ulcer samples were found to hav e low energy profiles. Higher energy profiles were noted in ischemic, compared to normal, skin samples which might be explained by the effec ts of local hypoxemia inducing angiogenesis and increased cell storage of high energy molecules. P-31 NMR spectroscopy may play a role in wo und analysis, prognosticating outcomes, and identifying effective ther apeutic interventions.