Researchers develop topical device that measures skin health, blood flow

Print 03 November 2015
Joseph Keenan / FierceMedicalDevice

Researchers have developed an epidermal electronic device that can monitor skin health and blood flow that is easier and less expensive to use than other noninvasive sensors relying on optical or ultrasound technology.

The device, which could be used on patients who recently had skin grafts, accurately records the flow of blood in larger vessels and in networks of smaller vessels near the surface of the skin, MIT Technology Review reports. The inventors are also looking into possible uses for the device inside the human body.

The blood flow device works by slightly heating the skin and then temperature sensors record the movement of the heat as arteries and veins near the skin surface carry the heat away. That information is then run through models that account for the fluid dynamics of blood flow, John Rogers, one of the inventors and a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told the publication.

Rogers said the device is less sensitive to motion because of the way it "intimately laminates" to the skin. Currently, the technology can only sense to a depth of two millimeters, but the researchers are investigating additional configurations of the sensors and heating elements that would allow them to measure at greater depths.

The researchers hope to use the technology very soon to monitor wound healing in studies on how vascularization occurs in skin grafts. In the meantime, French cosmetics giant L'Oréal, which helped fund the research, plans to use the device to study skin health for its customers.

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