Elasticity is an important feature of skin physiology, basically responsible for allowing all movements, in all directions, without breaking. Several measuring devices have been developed to assess and quantify this property and recently, the CutiScan CS100® (CK electronics, FRG) was presented as an advance, providing its quantification in 360 degrees. By applying a negative pressure the system optically measures the displacement of the skin caused by suction, over time, for each of the 360 degrees. Considering this innovative approach, we explore, in the present study, new parameters based on different time-angle-displacement 3D representations to quantify in vivo skin elasticity, and compare them with the descriptors obtained by the device software. 20 female subjects (mean age 37.0 ± 18.7 were selected after informed written consent, and divided in two age groups (group 1: mean age 22.0 ± 1.3 years old; group 2: mean age 52.0 ± 13.7 years old). The elasticity descriptors were measured with the CutiScan® in three regions – forearm, leg and forehead, being V1 – the maximal displacement during suction, V2 – returning rate during the relaxation time, and V3 – the ratio of V2 and V1. Additionally we constructed 3D-based representations of the displacement curves, and calculated their surface area and the volume under the surface. Previous studies could not establish a relationship of the CutiScan® descriptors with age except an age related statistically significant increase found for the V2 value in the forehead, and a negative age related statistically significant relationship found for the V1 descriptor in the forearm. However, our 3D-based representations were found to be more pronounced in group 2, although only significant in the forehead (significant differences were also detected when comparing the forearm with the forehead and the leg with the forehead values). So, these results suggest that these 3D-based representations might be very useful to complement the analysis provided by this new device, in particular to visualize and describe age-related and regional differences in skin biomechanical behavior.
Physiology 2016 (Dublin, Ireland) (2016) Proc Physiol Soc 37, PCB148
Poster Communications: 3D representations can be useful to characterize skin’s biomechanical profile
H. Silva1,2, F. F. Rego3,4, F. Antunes2, R. Barbosa1, R. Fernando1, C. Rosado1, L. M. Rodrigues1,2
1. CBIOS, Universidade Lusofona, Lisboa, Portugal. 2. Pharmacol Sc, Universidade de Lisboa, School of Pharmacy, Lisboa, Portugal. 3. Automatic Control Laboratory 3 (LA3), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), School of Engineering (STI), Lausanne, Switzerland. 4. Institute for Systems and Robotics (ISR), Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisboa, Portugal.
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Where applicable, experiments conform with Society ethical requirements.