Non contact method for in vivo assessment of skin mechanical properties for assessing effect of ageing

The assessment of human tissue properties by objective and quantitative devices is very important to improve the understanding of its mechanical behaviour. The aim of this paper is to present a non contact method to measure the mechanical properties of human skin in vivo. A complete non contact device using an air flow system has been developed. Validation and assessment of the method have been performed on inert visco-elastic material. An in vivo study on the forearm of two groups of healthy women aged of 23.2 +/- 1.6 and 60.4 +/- 2.4 has been performed. Main parameters assessed are presented and a first interpretation to evaluate the reduced Young's modulus is proposed. Significant differences between the main parameters of the curve are shown with ageing. As tests were performed with different loads, the influence of the stress is also observed. We found a reduced Young's modulus with an air flow force of 10 mN of 14.38 +/- 3.61 kPa for the youngest group and 6.20 +/- 1.45 kPa for the oldest group. These values agree with other studies using classical or dynamic indentation. Non contact test using the developed device gives convincing results. (C) 2011 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.