Oral Presentation ASDR-AWTRS-MEPSA 2018 Joint Meeting

Diagnosing Burn Wound Severity: Biomarkers and Wound Biochemistry (#15)

Leila Cuttle 1
  1. Queensland University of Technology, South Brisbane, QUEENSLAND, Australia

Paediatric burn wound severity can be difficult to diagnose early, and treatment may be delayed while a wait-and-see approach is adopted by the clinical team. We have been studying burn blister fluid collected from children with varying burn severities and have performed proteomic and biochemical analyses to reveal the key differences between samples. In 87 different paediatric burn blister fluid samples, over 800 individual proteins were identified and more than 600 proteins were quantified, using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry analysis with SWATH aquisition. Metabolites and small molecules were also quantified in the samples using NMR Spectroscopy techniques. Proteins and metabolites that were related to different burn depths, different times for wound re-epithelialisation and use of correct first aid treatment were identified. This study has enabled us to gain a greater understanding of the biochemical pathways involved in burn injury and repair and identify proteins which can be used as diagnostic or prognostic tools to assist with clinical management.