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Accuracy and reliability of a hand‐held in vivo skin indentation device to assess skin elasticity
Author(s) -
Virén T.,
Iivarinen J. T.,
Sarin J. K.,
Harvima I.,
Mayrovitz H. N.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal of cosmetic science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1468-2494
pISSN - 0142-5463
DOI - 10.1111/ics.12444
Subject(s) - indentation , stiffness , materials science , reproducibility , biomedical engineering , composite material , skin thickness , modulus , medicine , mathematics , statistics
Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a hand‐held indentation device for fast and reliable determination of skin stiffness. Methods Device accuracy to indentation depths of 0.6 and 1.3 mm was first evaluated on plastic foam materials with mechanical properties verified by a laboratory material testing device. Subsequently, the device's sensitivity to detect age‐related changes in skin stiffness was evaluated among 46 healthy women (18–79 years). Finally, the reproducibility of the method was tested with six healthy subjects. Results High correlation was detected between indentation stiffness of reference material and Young's modulus determined with mechanical testing device (0.6 mm indenter: r = 0.97, P = 0.05; 1.3 mm indenter: r = 0.98, P = 0.04). Age‐related decrease of 38% in skin stiffness was observed in healthy volunteers ( P < 0.05). The coefficient of variation for 0.6 and 1.3 mm indenters was 7.4% and 8.5%, respectively. No trend related to hysteresis effect was observed from repeated measurements. Conclusions The presented indentation technique was accurate against the laboratory material testing device. Furthermore, skin changes related to ageing could be detected with the indentation technique. The new device was found to be feasible for monitoring skin stiffness in cosmetics and clinical conditions.