Kenichiro Yoshida

Relationship between microstructure of the skin surface and surface reflection based on geometric optics

BACKGROUND The behavior of reflected light in skin affects skin appearance and provides clues as to the internal condition of the skin. Surface topography is one of the central physical factors contributing to surface reflection. OBJECTIVE We tried to clarify the relationship between microstructure of the skin surface and surface reflection based on geometric optics. METHODS Microstructures and surface reflections in the left cheeks of adult females were evaluated. Skin topography was acquired measuring replicas using confocal laser microscopy. Surface topography was used to calculate arithmetical mean deviation of the surface (S(a)), and geometric index from gradient of the surface (S(grad)), which is expected to correlate with the directionality of surface reflection (DoSR) based on geometric optics. A surface reflection image was acquired from differently polarized pictures of a face, and the index of surface reflection (I(obs)) was calculated as the average pixel value of the area of shine. Correlations between indices were then evaluated. RESULTS S(grad) and S(a) showed significant correlation (p<0.01) with I(obs). However, S(grad) showed a higher correlation with the simulated surface reflection from the reflection model than S(a). In addition, S(grad) can explain differences in DoSR for some panelists even in the case of an identical S(a). CONCLUSIONS The topographic element involved in DoSR was extracted from height mapping. S(grad) reflects the ratio of flat area, offering a more effective indicator than S(a) for distinguishing topographic characteristics with respect to surface reflection.

Relationships between Transepidermal Water Loss, Cutaneous Microcirculatory Function and Autonomic Nervous Activity

Several studies have shown that a deterioration of skin properties, an impaired cutaneous microcirculatory function and an imbalance of autonomic nervous activity are observed in smokers and in patients with diabetes mellitus or Raynauds phenomenon. These observations suggest that skin properties are associated with cutaneous microcirculatory function and autonomic nervous activity in pathological conditions. However, there is no published evidence to support the concept that these two functions have any relationship with skin properties even in healthy subjects. To investigate the hypothesis that these properties are related, we conducted a survey of healthy adult subjects to investigate the relationships between cutaneous microcirculatory function and autonomic nervous activity and skin properties.

Application of the critical angle method to refractive index measurement of human skin in vivo under partial contact

Abstract. We adapted the critical angle method for measuring rough surfaces under partial contact to acquire an in vivo skin refractive index (RI). Assuming that the total reflection is the simple sum of reflection from areas that are in contact and reflection from those that are not in contact, the RI can be estimated even for partial contact with a rough surface. We found that cheek skin is sufficiently soft that a sufficiently large area can be in contact and that the critical angle was detectable. The RIs of the cheeks of adult females were measured. The RI range was about 1.51 to 1.53, at a wavelength of 550 nm, without considering systematic errors. The RIs of cheeks are significantly correlated with their conductance, which corresponds to their water content. We determined the relationship between the RI and conductance within the variation of skin under normal conditions; this relationship was theoretically obtained in previous studies. In the present study, a direct in vivo measurement method was developed that enabled us to measure the RI in daily life, although this method contains errors for several reasons, including disregarding absorption.

Simple and effective method for measuring translucency using edge loss: optimization of measurement conditions and applications for skin

We have developed a simple and effective method for everyday measurement of translucency with a handy spectral reflectometer using edge loss. Edge loss can be used to quantify the translucency index in terms of changes in reflectance under two types of measurement conditions. Here, a measurement condition represents the pairing of an illumination area and a measurement area. As a measure of the degree of lateral spread of reflected light, the translucency index can influence the appearance of human skin because this index represents eventual translucency. First, we estimated how edge loss changes when measurement conditions are varied. We then selected the combination of two measurement conditions of large and small edge loss to minimize errors. Finally, we estimated actual skin translucency changes before and after treatments comprising acetone-ether immersion and ultraviolet irradiation. The results were qualitatively consistent with the expectations under variations in absorbance and scattering capacity, indicating the effectiveness of this method in evaluating translucency. This method allows simultaneous measurement of translucency and reflectance as a spectrum, and also appears applicable for daily use, although common optical parameters cannot be derived using this method alone.

Reduction of shading-derived artifacts in skin chromophore imaging without measurements or assumptions about the shape of the subject

Abstract. To quantitatively evaluate skin chromophores over a wide region of curved skin surface, we propose an approach that suppresses the effect of the shading-derived error in the reflectance on the estimation of chromophore concentrations, without sacrificing the accuracy of that estimation. In our method, we use multiple regression analysis, assuming the absorbance spectrum as the response variable and the extinction coefficients of melanin, oxygenated hemoglobin, and deoxygenated hemoglobin as the predictor variables. The concentrations of melanin and total hemoglobin are determined from the multiple regression coefficients using compensation formulae (CF) based on the diffuse reflectance spectra derived from a Monte Carlo simulation. To suppress the shading-derived error, we investigated three different combinations of multiple regression coefficients for the CF. In vivo measurements with the forearm skin demonstrated that the proposed approach can reduce the estimation errors that are due to shading-derived errors in the reflectance. With the best combination of multiple regression coefficients, we estimated that the ratio of the error to the chromophore concentrations is about 10%. The proposed method does not require any measurements or assumptions about the shape of the subjects; this is an advantage over other studies related to the reduction of shading-derived errors.

Rapid calculation of diffuse reflectance from a multilayered model by combination of the white Monte Carlo and adding-doubling methods

To rapidly derive a result for diffuse reflectance from a multilayered model that is equivalent to that of a Monte-Carlo simulation (MCS), we propose a combination of a layered white MCS and the adding-doubling method. For slabs with various scattering coefficients assuming a certain anisotropy factor and without absorption, we calculate the transition matrices for light flow with respect to the incident and exit angles. From this series of precalculated transition matrices, we can calculate the transition matrices for the multilayered model with the specific anisotropy factor. The relative errors of the results of this method compared to a conventional MCS were less than 1%. We successfully used this method to estimate the chromophore concentration from the reflectance spectrum of a numerical model of skin and in vivo human skin tissue.