Vesicants are a group of chemicals recognised, under the terms of the Chemical Weapons Convention, as potential
chemical warfare agents whose prime effect on the skin is to cause
burns and blistering. Experience of the clinical management of these
injuries is not readily available and therefore an accurate assessment of the severity of the lesion and extent of tissue involvement is an important factor when determining the subsequent clinical management strategy for such lesions. This study was performed to assess the use of
laser Doppler imaging (LDI) as a noninvasive means of assessing
wound microvascular perfusion following challenge with the
vesicant agents (sulphur mustard or
lewisite) by comparing the images obtained with histopathological analysis of the lesion. Large white pigs were challenged with sulphur mustard (1.91 mg cm(-2)) or
lewisite (0.3 mg.cm(-2)) vapour for periods of up to 6 h At intervals of between 1 h and 7 days following
vesicant challenge, LDI images were acquired and samples for routine histopathology were taken. The results from this study suggest that LDI was: (i) a simple, reproducible and noninvasive means of assessing changes in tissue perfusion, and hence tissue viability, in developing and healing
vesicant burns; (ii) the LDI images correlates well with histopathological assessment of the resulting lesions and the technique was sufficiently sensitive enough to discriminate between skin lesions of different aetiology. These attributes suggest that LDI would be a useful investigative tool that could aid clinical management decision making in the early treatment of
vesicant agent-induced skin
burns.