A huge issue when it comes to skin diseases is the lack of proper testing. Often, a chronic condition such as eczema is diagnosed from symptoms such as flare-ups. The flare-ups are then measured and assessed on a scale for severity.
Currently, medical experts use the transepidermal water loss (TEWL), which tends to lack reliability due to many internal and external factors.
Recently, scientists at the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma identified a harmless way to detect skin diseases. This new tool is called Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy or EIS for short. The idea behind this new tool is to focus on the disrupted skin barrier. EIS sends harmless pulses of electricity to skin cells. If the pathway is clear then the pulses will flow freely. However, if something is obstructing the way, there will be resistance to alert the device.
The EIS device can detect differences in tissue size, shape, and compactness. This is very beneficial for detecting abnormal skin and cancerous skin cells. What makes this device unique is the lightweight, portable, quick, and best of all non-evasive.
When determining how sustainable EIS could be, researchers raised two important questions. How effective would this device be at measuring healthy skin vs unhealthy skin? Also, is this method better than what’s out there in the market?
Their answers came in the form of artificially disrupting mouse skin using a “tape stripping,” method. This is where researchers discovered the EIS device can recognize skin barrier damaged and which layer the damage exists. This was was a major distinction that set the EIS device apart. The ability to differentiate between the three layers.
In this exciting discovery, Switzerland is currently recruiting those with or without eczema to test EIS on human skin. For patients applicable, at-risk infants can be tested and preventative measures can be taken. This would be a dream come true! I will be following the results of this case study. For more information, check out the source below.
Source: https://massivesci.com/articles/eczema-electrical-impedance-spectroscopy-eis-skin-condition-itching/