[Development with age of the cutaneous microdepression relief. Correlation with the alteration of cognitive...

The evolution of the skin microdepressionary network has been quantified as a function of age on negative replicas by semi-automated image analysis in two populations. The first one was composed of 190 healthy persons from 6 months to 95 years of age. There is a good correlation between the age of the subjects and the 4 stereological parameters of the geometrical figures delimited by the primary and secondary skin folds. Some differences between males and females could be observed concerning the rythm of the evolution of the studied parameters. In a second population of 111 persons (72 females and 39 males) of more than 65 years of age and followed in an epidemiological study ("PAQUID", J. F. Dartigues et al.), we compared the results of the evaluation of the 4 parameters of the cutaneous microdepressionary network with the age of the subjects and with the results of cognitive function tests (MMS of Folstein, Wechsler's test). Some of the stereological parameters seem to be better correlated to the score of MMS than to the chronological age of the subjects.