Conference Contribution Details
RE Imhof.
Invited Lecture, 6th Annual Meeting of the Skin Forum, Winchester, June 2005.
Summary:-
This lecture examines the relationship between transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and the skin barrier. A fundamental difficulty is that TEWL cannot be measured directly. TEWL is water loss through the intact stratum corneum. “TEWL instruments” measure water vapour flux density in the air above the stratum corneum. The two quantities are not necessarily equal.
After an introduction to define the problem, the conditions necessary for deducing the barrier property from water vapour flux measurements are examined from the perspectives of measurement methods, signal interpretation and mathematical modelling of the skin + measurement head system. The main conclusion is that you can measure barrier resistance provided that certain conditions are satisfied.
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