Correlation between near infrared spectroscopy and electrical techniques in measuring skin moisture content

By: Mastura Mohamad

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Mohd Zubir Mat Jafri Co-Supervisor: Dr. Ahmad Fairuz Omar
School of Physics Universiti Sains Malaysia
11800 USM, Penang, Malaysia Tel : 604-6533888 Fax : 604-6579150

OUTLINE
Motivation of Study Background of Study Instrumentation & Experimental Methodology Result & Discussion Conclusion Research Contribution

MOTIVATION OF STUDY

 Moisture in skin plays an important role to keep skin soft and supple as well as maintaining healthy skin. A healthy skin has water in stratum corneum (SC) normally around 20% . Much attention has been paid in evaluating the water content of the SC over the last decade. The bioengineering provides a non-invasive technique to measure moisture content of skin in vivo with the most popular technique based on measuring electrical properties on skin surface. However, this technique has some limitation.

Nowadays, NIR spectroscopy technique serves as an important tool for the measurement of moisture content of skin owing to the advantages it has over the other techniques. The aim of this study to develop a correlation between NIR spectroscopy (NIRQuest) with conventional electrical technique (Dermalab Moisture Module and Scalar Moisture Checker) for skin moisture measurement.

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

What is Skin? Skin is the largest organ of the

human body and make up approximately 16% of total body weight.

Skin Layer :
Epidermis Dermis Subcutaneous Tissue

Major role :
To prevent loss of water and regulates body temperature by blood flow & evaporation of sweat. Act as physical barrier to the hostile external environment.

 The epidermis-outer layer of skin. The epidermis contains of 5 layers: Stratum Corneum Stratum Lucidum Stratum Granulosum Stratum Spinosum Stratum Basale

Stratum corneum (SC) Outermost layer, thickness 1020 m

 The SC functions: Maintaining life - water holding capacity and lipid content. As a barrier to water loss and keep skin surface smooth and soft by binding the water Dry atmosphere - act as a skin barrier to protect the underlying hydrated living skin tissue from desiccation. Normal skin - water content about 1020 % near the SC surface. The water content of SC is an important physiological parameter indicating skin condition.

Electrical Technique
The most popular technique to determine water content of skin is based on measuring electrical properties such as capacitance and alternating current conductivity on the skin surface (Arimoto et. al, 2005). Probes have two electrodes of various designs and when it is applied to the skin, the instruments are used to record the value of capacitance or conductance correlate directly with the water content of the skin.
Dermalab (Cortex Technology)

Corneometer (Courage & Khazaka)

NIR Spectroscopy
Electromagnetic spectrum
NIR range: 750 -2500 nm

What is the special about the waves NIR ranges? NIR light is absorbed by the molecules containing C-H, O-H and N-H groups. O-H bands of water are very intensive which exhibit five absorption maxima at 760, 970, 1190, 1450, 1900 nm (Reich, 2005).

ADVANTAGES OF NIR SPECTROSCOPY FOR SKIN MOISTURE MEASUREMENT

The stability in changes of temperature and RH

High in accuracy and precision

Non occlusive

High sensitivity to hydrogen bonding

Fast data collection (0.1 s per single spectrum) - with single spectrum allow several parameter determined simultaneously

INSTRUMENTATION AND EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGY

Skin Analysis System

Based on measuring capacitance of SC Accurate correlation with actual moisture content Measurement: ranging from 0 to 99.9 % Unit : percentage (%).

Scalar Moisture Checker MY-808S (Scalar Corporation, Japan)

DermaLab Moisture Module (Cortex Technology, Hadsund, Denmark)

Reading of Measurement

Electrical conductance based device Operating at single frequency 100 kHz Measurement: ranging from 0-1999 S Unit : microSiemens (S)

Moisture Probe

NIR Spectroscopy Instruments

Light source : HL2000 tungsten halogen lamp (wavelength region 360-2500 nm)

NIRQuest (Ocean Optics) High sensitivity optical bench and low noise and dark current. Wavelength range: 900nm 2500nm Detector : high performance InGaAs array detector

Reflectance probe: R600-7-VIS-125F (wavelength 4002500 nm)

10 healthy volunteers (male & female )

Approved by The Human Research Ethics Committee, USM

Age : 21- 25 years

Human Subjects
Area: Left&right (palm, uppear arm,forearm,cheek) & forehead Subject-acclimatized at least 20 minutes in a temperature-controlled room

Methodology
Analysis: Minitab 16 Statistical and Unscrambler X 10.3 (trial version) software

Skin self evaluation

Non invasive measurement of skin hydration using NIR spectrometer and Electrical instruments

For each measurement, a 2 cm x 2 cm test site was applied with three replicated measurements

Skin Moisture Measurement Methodology

Measurement techniques of moisture content of skin using conventional electrical instruments.

Temperature and humidity sensor

Fiber optic probe

NIRQuest spectrometer Tungsten halogen lamp

White reference

Experimental setup for skin moisture measurement using NIR spectroscopy technique.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

80 970 nm 70 Cheek L 60 1190 nm Palm R Palm L Forearm R Forearm L Upper arm R Upper arm L 1450 nm 1900 nm Forehead Cheek R

Reflectance (%)

50
40 30 20

10
0 900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 2100 2300 2500

Wavelength (nm)

Reflectance Spectra of nine different parts of hand and face using NIRQuest spectrometer (Ocean Optics)

Summary of the experimental results conducted on a skin sample of 10 subjects using a combination of four selected wavelengths (950-970 nm, 1100-1900 nm, 1400-1450 nm and 1870-1900 nm). Coefficient of determination, R2 (%) NIRQuest & NIRQuest & Moisture Dermalab Checker 77.2 70.9 95.2 96.5 91.7 95.0 81.5 97.9 93.4 88.3 88.8 80.1 58.8 56.3 94.4 81.6 51.6 67.3 74.5 90.3 74.1 72.9

Subjects 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Average

 From the experimental data summarized in the table, moisture content of skin determined by NIR spectroscopy technique correlated well with the electrical conventional techniques with the R2 values range from 70.9 to 97.9 % (average of 88.8 %) between NIRQuest and Dermalab moisture probe.

Least accuracy has been observed for the correlation between NIRQuest and Moisture Checker with the R2 values ranges from 51.6 to 94.4 % (average of 72.9 %).

a
250

b
R2 =97.9 %
200
Calculated Moisture

R2 =94.4 %

150

100

50 50 100 150 Actual Moisture 200 250

The scatter plot graph for the best correlation obtained between the value of (a) NIRQuest &Dermalab (b) NIRQuest & Moisture Checker

CONCLUSION

 A skin-self evaluation questionnaire was conducted and a non invasive measurement were performed on the left and right of the palm, forearm, upper arm and cheek also on the forehead. The four ranges of wavelengths 950-990 nm, 1110-1190 nm, 1400-1450 nm and 1870-1900 nm were identified to be strongly dominated by the absorption of water and have contributed very well in the development of correlation between spectroscopic and conventional electrical technique.

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION

 A correlation of spectroscopic techniques was successfully developed for quantifying moisture content of human skin. From the analysis of the entire research confirmed the ability of spectroscopic technique for practically used in quantifying moisture content of human skin. Therefore, can help to establish novel specialized optical system for rapid and non-occlusive measurement in clinical used especially in the dermatology field.

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School of Physics Universiti Sains Malaysia