title: Mechanical skin thinning-to-thickening transition observed in vivo through 2D high frequency elastography.
abstract: This study was based on two dimensional (2D) high frequency elastography to describe quantitatively the mechanical behavior of the human dermis in vivo. The study was conducted on the forearm skin and elastographic tests were performed using a combination of two devices: an extensiometer developed for the in vivo study of the mechanical behavior of the skin using uniaxial stretching stress, and a 20MHz real time sonographer (Dermcup 2020™) for ultrasound skin imaging. The staggered strain estimation algorithm (SSE) was used to produce elastograms. A temporal cumulative technique was applied to improve elastogram quality and to monitor variations in skin strain during stretching. The influence of the natural skin tension controlled by arm bending was studied and distinctive mechanical behavior was observed for low and high mechanical stress levels. In a preliminary analysis, the reproducibility of measurements was assessed by means of coefficient of variation (CV) in 5 selected healthy volunteers.Finally, two hypotheses linked to the geometrical and structural properties of the dermis are proposed to account for the new findings described in this study.
authors.affiliation: Université François Rabelais de Tours, Tours, France. yassine.mofid@univ-tours.fr
authors.forename: Yassine
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mofid
authors.forename: Gwendal
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Josse
authors.forename: Solène
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gahagnon
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Delalleau
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ossant
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D020405:Dermis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology; D004548:Elasticity; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005542:Forearm; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012867:Skin / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013718:Tensile Strength; D055815:Young Adult