Skin bioengineering

Abstract

Clinical assessments of environmental dermatoses may be biased owing to their subjectivity and their wide interobserver variations. Skin bioinstrumentation aims at bringing accuracy, objectivity, reproducibility, sensitivity, and precision to clinical assessments. Occupational and environmental threats frequently alter the biological functions of the stratum corneum, and induce inflammation. Irritant and allergic contact dermatoses are conveniently explored using bioengineering methods. Transepidermal water loss and skin capacitance imaging represent two major dermometrological methods in occupational dermatology. Currently there is no bioengineering method elucidating the differential diagnosis between irritant and allergic contact dermatitis because the specificity of each method is limited. Due to their high sensitivity, the biometrological methods allow the severity rating of environmental dermatoses.