A non-invasive microscopic method for measuring epidermal thickness in vivo

Some improvements are reported of a relatively unknown method for measuring the thickness of the epidermis in vivo. The excursion of a microscope tube is measured when focussing respectively on the summits of the dermal capillary loops and on the epidermal surface. With this method values may be produced with a standard deviation in the order of 10 micron. Averaged epidermal thickness on the flexor forearm was 60 +/- 1 micron, the spread being the standard error of the mean. In principle the thickness of the horny layer can be determined with this method by measuring thicknesses before and after stripping of the horny layer.