Opto-Thermal Transient Emission Radiometry (OTTER) to image diffusion in nails in vivo

This work describes the first application of Opto-Thermal Transient Emission Radiometry (OTTER), an infrared remote sensing technique, to probe the extent to which solvents permeate the human nail in vivo. Decanol, glycerol and butyl acetate were selected as model solvents. After application of the solvents, individually, to human volunteers, OTTER was used to depth profile the solvents. The permeation rate of the solvents was ranked as glycerol>decanol>butyl acetate. It is possible that some of the butyl acetate may have evaporated during the experiment. The ability of decanol to extract lipids from biological tissue is also considered. These preliminary results demonstrate the potential of OTTER as a tool to identify optimal excipients with which to target drugs to the nail.