RESEARCH ARTICLE
Estimation of In Vivo Water Content of the Stratum Corneum from Electrical Measurements
Gorm Krogh Johnsen*, 1, Ø.G Martinsen1, 2, S Grimnes1, 2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2009Volume: 3
First Page: 8
Last Page: 12
Publisher ID: TOBEJ-3-8
DOI: 10.2174/1874120700903010008
Article History:
Received Date: 01/12/2008Revision Received Date: 15/2/2009
Acceptance Date: 17/2/2009
Electronic publication date: 3/4/2009
Collection year: 2009
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
In vivo water content in the epidermal stratum corneum can be estimated by means of low frequency susceptance measurements. In the in vitro calibration necessary to find the in vivo water content, the stratum corneum will have a uniform distribution of water across its thickness. However, in vivo stratum corneum has an increasing water concentration profile from the outermost towards the innermost parts. This paper will investigate the possibility of estimating the equilibrium water content in the in vivo stratum corneum non-invasively from electrical susceptance measurements. Given a known shape of the water concentration profile in the in vivo stratum corneum and the dependence of susceptance on the water content, it is possible to calculate the water content in vivo based on analytically derived expressions for the water concentration profile. A correspondence between in vivo and in vitro water content needed for this purpose is also established.