P12 Measurement of skin edema by a dielectric technique (MoistureMeter‐D)

Easily applicable, cheap, noninvasive and quantitative techniques to measure edema in skin and subcutaneous tissues have not been available. Recently, a new device MoistureMeter-D based on the local measurement of the dielectric properties of the biological tissues was validated in the quantitation of systemic edema in humans. In the present study the MoistureMeter-D was applied to quantitate local skin edema related to skin irritation. The irritation was induced in the volar forearms of 12 healthy volunteers with the topical application of 1% sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) for 6 hours. After induction the volunteers were divided into two groups: the irritation site of group I (six volunteers) had no treatment for the irritation site while for group II (six volunteers) the corticosteroid cream was topically administered on the irritation site. A good correlation was measured between the temporal changes of edema during the three days’ follow-up by the ultrasound-measured skin thickness and the edema-specific MoistureMeter-D in group I (p < 0.001). The reduction of edema in group II by the corticosteroid treatment was consistently measured by both instruments. The coefficient of variation for a single measurement varied between 2 and 3%. The results demonstrate that the MoistuMeter-D is an accurate instrument for the quick quantitative evaluation of local oedema and fluid retention in irritated skin.