Elasticity of blood vessels makes them contract or dilate in regulating the body temperature to changes in external temperature changes such as air-conditioning. However, ageing makes them gradually lose elasticity, making it difficult for blood vessels to make adjustments. In this study, we propose the use of biospeckle Optical Coherence Tomography (b-OCT) to visualize the dynamic changes within the skin. A total of 20 subjects with equal number of male and female particpants with ten in their 20’s and the other ten subjects in their 30’s or older were subjected to heating of the palmar forearm of their dominant hand by a USB hot pad (40°C) for five minutes. A swept source OCT (SS-OCT) operating with a central wavelength of 1310nm, a bandwidth of 125 nm and a sweep frequency of 20kHz was used to obtain OCT structural images at 12fps. From the OCT structural images obtained before and after heating, biospeckle contrast was calculated from the temporal variation in the images and compared. Biospeckle contrast results were compared for the depth, gender, and age differences. With heating, a clear difference of increased contrast was observed at shallower depths in comparison to deeper regions for both genders, while, as a whole, a larger contrast difference was observed for male in comparison to female participants. Furthermore, in the age group larger than 30, the contrast change with change in environment was smaller, suggesting the loss of elasticity to adjust to the environmental changes.
In recent years, ultraviolet (UV) light therapy has been attracting attention as a treatment method for skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis, vitiligo, and psoriasis which have been considered difficult to treat. However, regarding the research on treatment, clinical studies have been the main research focus without much in-depth consideration into the radiative properties of UV light within the skin. Therefore, it is essential to know the optical properties, scattering and absorption coefficients, of the skin in the UV wavelength range to improve the treatment strategy. Our group has been developing a non-invasive method, reflection spatial profile method (RSPM), for measuring optical properties of skin and elucidated optical property differences arising out of cancer drugs[1]. In this study, we have developed a novel system that operates in the range of UV wavelengths irradiating the skin with a structured incoherent source and detecting the reflected light with a CCD camera. Measurements are being conducted with human subjects of different age groups. Based on results obtained from the forearm and hand measurements of 76 subjects consisting of 31 males and 45 females in their 20s~30s. UV light penetration depth can be estimated from the optical properties obtained. It was found that the amount of light absorption can vary up to 1.5 times at the same depth depending on gender, age, and site.
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