Volume measurement of interstitial fluid transdermally extracted is important in continuous glucose monitoring instrument. The volume of transdermally extracted interstitial fluid could be determined by a skin permeability coefficient. If the skin impedance which is the indicator of skin permeability coefficient can be accurately measured, the volume of interstitial fluid can be calculated based on the relationship between the indicator and the skin permeability coefficient. The possibility of using the skin impedance to indicate the skin permeability coefficient is investigated. A correlation model between the skin impedance and the skin permeability coefficient is developed. A novel non-invasive method for in vivo, real-time, and accurate measurement of skin impedance within a micro skin area is brought forward. The proposed measurement method is based on the theory that organisms saliva and interstitial fluid are equipotential. An electrode is put on the surface of a micro skin area and another one is put in the mouth to be fully contacted with saliva of an animal in the experiments. The electrode in mouth is used to replace the implantable subcutaneous electrode for non-invasive measurement of skin impedance in vivo. A biologically compatible AC current with amplitude of 100mv and frequency of 10Hz is applied to stimulate the micro skin area by the two electrodes. And then the voltage and current between the two electrodes are measured to calculate the skin impedance within a micro skin area. The measurement results by electrode in mouth are compared with the results by subcutaneous electrode in animal experiments and they are consistent so the proposed measurement method is verified well. The effect of moisture and pressure for the measurement is also studied in the paper.

Date Published: 15 November 2011
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 8321, Seventh International Symposium on Precision Engineering Measurements and Instrumentation, 83213F (15 November 2011); doi: 10.1117/12.905306

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8321:
Seventh International Symposium on Precision Engineering Measurements and Instrumentation
Kuang-Chao Fan; Man Song; Rong-Sheng Lu, Editor(s)