Skin dehydration monitoring with optical spectroscopy allows assessment of water content in the organism: Thermal and physical loads, diuretic therapy

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between body hydration levels and skin hydration using spatially resolved diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The research involved monitoring skin dehydration and rehydration under various conditions, including thermal and physical loads on healthy volunteers, and diuretic therapy in patients with edema syndrome. Findings indicate a correlation between body mass reduction and skin hydration: a 1% loss in body mass corresponds to a 10% decrease in skin hydration. During thermal stress, water absorption at 970 nm decreased monotonically without recovery. Physical activity resulted in approximately 10% changes in skin water content within 20 min, followed by rehydration. Patients with edema syndrome exhibited the most substantial decrease in water absorption amplitude, at nearly 30%, during diuretic treatment. These results support optical spectroscopy as a non‐invasive tool for assessing body hydration, with implications for developing portable hydration monitoring devices for clinical and sports applications.

Towards non‐invasive tissue hydration measurements with optical coherence tomography

“…Consequently, for clinical applications, targeting anatomical regions with substantial homogeneity is a prerequisite. Recently, using spatially resolved diffuse reflection spectroscopy, reference [31] demonstrated a relation between changes in the determined water index and the change in body weight due to heat, physical exercise and diuretic therapy. Although the errors bars in the measured water index were relatively large, they interestingly, found a 10-fold larger effect in the dehydration of the dermis compared to the body weight loss, which may loosen the needed σ μ OCT .…”