The effect of blood content on the optical and dielectric skin properties

A wearable system incorporating sensors for dielectric and optical spectroscopy was used to study skin properties and their dependence on the cutaneous blood content (CBC). Simultaneous measurements with both modalities were carried out on the upper arm during blood perfusion-provoking exercises performed by four subjects in four separate sets of experiments. By relating changes in the attenuation of green (central wavelength λ(c) = 568 nm) and infrared (λ(c) = 798 nm) light, the ratio of mean pathlengths travelled by photons in the skin blood plexus was obtained. The pathlength for infrared light is found to be 3.85 times larger than for green. Combining signals of two wavelengths and accounting for pathlength difference, we quantitatively characterize the CBC as a cumulative optical thickness of red blood cells in the skin plexus. The dielectric spectra of skin in the MHz range were fitted with the Cole-Cole model and the changes of parameters were quantitatively related to the optically derived changes in CBC using a linear regression analysis. The positive correlation with CBC is obtained for the dispersion exponent (R(2) = 0.68), and the negative-for the dispersion time (R(2) = 0.40). Thus dielectric dispersion of the skin gets broader and shifts towards lower frequencies with an increase of CBC.