Mechanical Characterization of Skin Using Surface Acoustic Waves

The mechanical properties of skin are important parameters that are useful for understanding skin pathophysiology, which can aid disease diagnosis and treatment. This chapter presents a quantitative skin mechanical characterization method using surface acoustic waves (SAWs) measured by phase-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PhS-OCT). Experiments are carried out on in vivo human skin, at the forearm and the palm. For each experiment, the surface wave phase-velocity dispersion curves were calculated, from which the elasticity of each layer of the sample was determined. It has been demonstrated that the experimental results agree well with theoretical expectations. This chapter provides a novel combination of PhS-OCT technology with a simple mechanical impulse surface wave stimulation that can be used to noninvasively evaluate the mechanical properties of skin in vivo, and may offer potential use in clinical situations.