City Research Online

Abstract

Eczema, is a common skin inflammatory disorder particularly among children. The treatment of which usually consists of the application of emollients and moisturisers to maintain skin moisture and to reduce the risk of inflammation, infection and exacerbative factors. Recently, DreamSkin® Health Limited has developed a unique polymer treatment for eczema. The polymer has been applied to medical grade silk clothing as a means of delivering the therapeutic benefits to the sufferers' skin. They claim that the polymer reduces the loss of moisture caused by evaporation from damaged skin; acts as a barrier against external irritants and helps to restore the skin's natural temperature management process. The aim of this study was to assess the products effectiveness at providing symptomatic relief for a volunteer with confirmed Eczema and Atopic Dermatitis over a period of 14 days. Both skin capacitance and NIR spectra were collected during the course of the study, using the Corneometer® CM 825 and a spectrophotometer equipped with a customized reflectance probe for measurements in the Near Infrared region. The treated area showed visibly improved skin and overall results from both techniques showed a noticeable increase in skin water content after 14 days, peaking on the 7th day. However, slight differences were observed in the 7 magnitude of increase between the two instruments. Future work will focus on expanding this study to include more cases as well as performing statistical analysis to build upon our previous work in the area of skin hydration determinations using Near Infrared Spectroscopy.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Subjects:	R Medicine > RL Dermatology T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Departments:	School of Science & Technology > Engineering

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