Towards Medical Terahertz Sensing of Skin Hydration

Authors

Michael Lee, Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology (CASIT
Rahul S. Singh, Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology (CASIT
Martin O. Culjat, Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology (CASIT
Shyam Natarajan, Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology (CASIT
Brian P. Cox, Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology (CASIT
Elliott R. Brown, Wright State University - Main CampusFollow
Warren S. Grundfest, Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology (CASIT
Hua Lee, Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology (CASIT

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2009

Identifier/URL

40296188 (Pure); 19377185 (PubMed); 67549107403 (QABO)

Abstract

Terahertz imaging has shown promise as a tool for noninvasive in-vivo detection of skin abnormalities, including skin cancer, burns, scars, and wounds due to its low non-ionizing photon energy and ability to penetrate clothing and gauze. This study examines whether low-level bulk differences in the water content between hyperhydrated and dehydrated skin can be detected using a scanning, reflective THz imaging system. Our results show an 8.7x difference in the THz reflectivity between hyperhydrated and dehydrated specimens of chicken skin. The results provide further evidence that water concentration is the primary contrast mechanism in reflective THz biomedical imaging.

Comments

© 2009 The authors.

Repository Citation

Lee, M., Singh, R. S., Culjat, M. O., Natarajan, S., Cox, B. P., Brown, E. R., Grundfest, W. S., & Lee, H. (2009). Towards Medical Terahertz Sensing of Skin Hydration. Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 17 - NextMed, 142, 364-368.
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/physics/1259

DOI

10.3233/978-1-58603-964-6-364