Near infrared imaging for measuring and visualizing skin hydration. A comparison with visual assessment and electrical methods

Abstract

A near infrared (NIR) multispectral imaging method for measuring skin hydration has been applied in a clinical study for estimating skin hydration effects of skin moisturizers and cleansers. The method has been compared to the commercially available, standard electrical methods for evaluating changes in skin hydration based on conductance and capacitance measurements. All of the instrumental methods have been compared to the visual assessment of skin dryness. It has been shown that the NIR imaging method is capable of detecting changes in skin hydration induced by skin moisturizers and cleansers. A large positive hydration change upon treatment by a moisturizing cream was easily detected by all three instrumental methods and by the expert visual assessment of dryness. The imaging technique is rapid, noncontact and noninvasive, and has the additional important advantage of showing the degree of hydration as a function of location, for rapid assessment of change in hydration. There was a clear difference between the instrumental methods when the induced changes were not as great as that from the moisturizing cream. The imaging technique showed more sensitive discrimination between treatments and control, and strong correlation to visual appearance of dryness. (c) 2005 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Microspectroscopic Confocal Raman and Macroscopic Biophysical Measurements in the in vivo Assessment of the Skin Barrier: Perspective for Dermatology and Cosmetic Sciences

“…These outcomes reveal that values given by capacitance and conductance should be interpreted with caution, as incorrect estimation of the true SC water content might derive from the influence of the electric properties of the products applied rather than from the skin. The performance of capacitance and conductance has also been questioned in terms of the ability to discriminate mild changes in skin moisturization following a comparison with near-infrared spectroscopy, another optical method to directly measure skin water content [65]. …”

An Elementary Note on Skin Hydration Measurement Using Memristive Effect

“…The standard electrical methods for evaluating changes in skin hydration based on impedance, conductance and capacitance measurements are reported many of the literature [19][20][21]. But as a point of view of memristor based skin hydration measurement, the capacitive method will be best suited for such proposed application.…”

Near‐Infrared In Vivo Spectroscopic Imaging: Biomedical Research and Clinical Applications

“…Hydration Near-IR imaging has a number of useful applications in the area of dermatology including mapping tissue vasculature [27,28], highlighting inflammation [29], and gauging tissue hydration [30][31][32][33][34]. We summarize here an example to demonstrate the latter application.…”