Development of impedance measuring device for evaluation of skin barrier function

Abstract

The deterioration of skin barrier function causes symptoms such as allergy as various chemical substances may enter human body. It is very useful to quantitatively evaluate the state of the skin barrier in domains such as dermatology, nursing science and the cosmetics development. Therefore the authors developed an impedance measuring device for evaluation of skin barrier function. As the head of this device contacts the skin, the parameters, such as susceptance B and admittance Y in two kinds of frequencies, are measured in approximately five seconds. It calculates skin barrier index correlates the stratum corneum thickness. The correlation with these parameters and the stratum corneum thickness measured the confocal laser scanning microscopy, and the regression expressions for estimation of the stratum corneum thickness were examined. We found that the thickness of the stratum corneum using impedance is equivalent to the thickness of the stratum corneum by confocal laser scanning microscopy.