(WHS-P50) RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF SKIN BLOT EXAMINATION FOR ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATE TO DETECT PRESSURE-INDUCED MINOR TISSUE DAMAGE.
Friday, May 17, 2024
7:30 AM – 5:00 PM East Coast USA Time
Background: Early detection of subtle tissue damage caused by external force is a promising approach for personalized pressure injury prediction. We previously reported that adenosine triphosphate (ATP) collected from compressed skin through skin blotting can identify tissue damage. The aim is to study the reliability and validity of ATP detection through skin blot examination for identifying minor tissue damage induced by pressure.
Methods: The intra-rater reliability was assessed by three examiners conducting an ATP test through skin blotting twice. This involved wiping the targeted skin area five times in one direction with a non-woven cloth moistened with distilled water and applying a saline-moistened nylon membrane for 10 minutes. Subsequently, the nylon membrane was placed into an inspection kit, and the amount of collected ATP was measured using a portable ATP analyzer. The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC 1,1) was then calculated based on these two ATP measurements. For the validity study, 6-week-old male BALB/cCreSlc mice were acclimatized and housed for 1 week before being randomly assigned to the compression group (n = 5) and the control group (n = 5). The dorsal skin of the compression group underwent compression at 1000 mmHg for 4 hours. The ATP test using skin blotting was conducted on the skin surface of the compressed area and the surrounding skin. The ratio of ATP in the compressed area to the surrounding skin (compressed/surrounding skin) was compared using independent t-tests between the compression and control groups.
Results: The ICC1,1 was 0.615 (p = 0.004). Following compression, the compression group exhibited Grade I pressure ulcers. The ATP ratio (compressed/surrounding skin) was significantly higher after compression in the compression group (2.3 ± 0.4 vs 1.3 ± 0.6, p = 0.018).
Conclusion: The skin blot examination for ATP is a reliable and valid point-of-care method for detecting minor tissue damage in a mice model of pressure injuries.