Transepidermal Water Loss Measurement Device

Transepidermal water loss (TEWL) measurement approach is presented that achieves accurate and continuous monitoring completely independent of ambient environmental variations. This new measurement approach uses short dry air purges to dry the skin surface and the water vapor collection chamber, thus refreshing the measurement site each time during skin barrier analysis. These dry air purges help maintain a highly controlled localized measuring environment without disturbing any inherent skin properties, enabling one to produce reproducible TEWL results. A mathematical model developed based on Fick's laws of diffusion is presented, and shown to have excellent agreement with the mathematical model of a commercial TEWL device. The application of this mathematical model in deciphering the TEWL values from the transient microclimate behavior in the vapor measuring chamber of the new TEWL approach is also discussed.