Conference Contribution Details

 

HE Packham, RP Chilcott, CH Dalton, A Stevens, N Weston & the TEWL Calibration Consortium.
Poster, US-Regional ISBS Meeting, Orlando, October 2004.

 

Summary:-

There are well characterised discrepancies between the rates of transepidermal water loss measured with different instruments, even when used under identical conditions on the same skin sites. This has made it difficult to compare results measured with instruments from different manufacturers, or even with otherwise identical instruments from the same manufacturer. One possible cause of these discrepancies may be associated with instrument calibration, where a variety of non-traceable techniques are in use. With the development of a new traceable calibration technique by the TEWL Calibration Consortium, the question needs to be asked to what extent this has made a difference to the results obtained in practice.

The consortium is attempting to answer this question by conducting field and laboratory-based studies to determine the differences in the measurements obtained from the instruments available to the project. These include an open-chamber instrument, a closed-chamber unventilated instrument, a flowing air instrument and a closed-chamber condenser instrument. The paper will report on the extent to which the new calibration is leading to improved agreement between measurements and discuss possible causes of any residual discrepancies.

 

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