Skin Hydration Assessment through Modern Non-Invasive Bioengineering Technologies

Non-invasive bioengineering technologies continuously discovered and developed in recent decades provide a significant input to research development and remarkably contribute to the improvement of medical education and care to our patients.

Assessing skin hydration by using the capacitance method for a group of patients with allergic contact dermatitis versus healthy subjects, before and after applying a moisturiser (assessing the immediate and long-term effectiveness of hydration).

For both groups, but especially for the patients with dry skin, there was a clear improvement of hydration, statistically significant after applying the moisturiser. In the case of the patients with allergic contact dermatitis, hydration was at a maximum immediately after the first application, and then maintained an increased level after 7 and 28 days, respectively. In the healthy subjects, the increase in hydration was lower, but progressive. The moisturiser determined an increase in hydration for all age groups, but those who showed the most obvious effect were the young adults (18-29 years old) with an increase of 19.9%.The maintenance effect of hydration lasted for 28 days, while the improvement was important for allergic skin (17.1%) and significant for healthy skin (10.9%).

The assessment of epidermal hydration performed by using the corneometer showed very good hydration of the stratum corneum for both groups studied, with immediate and long-term effect. This study also showed that the degree of skin hydration was inversely proportional with age. The corneometer is easy to use, efficient and widely utilised in international studies for measurements in healthy or pathological conditions, for quantitative assessment of the effectiveness of various preparations intended for application to the skin surface, under well-controlled and standardised conditions.