Reference

TEWL - Trans epidermal water loss

The skin as the largest organ of the human body has many functions. A key one is the barrier function to the outside world. Its purpose is to prevent excessive loss of moisture and intake of harmful microorganisms and toxic substances. A recognized clinical parameter to measure the condition of the skin barrier is the Trans epidermal Water Loss (TEWL) metric. Even if no dysfunctions are visible, increased TEWL values can already indicate barrier damage to the skin. The diseases characteristically damage the ceramides / cells of the skin, which can be used as a basis for the diseases as a diagnosis of the TEWL value as well as the severity of the disease.

Schematic figure of the human skin, consisting of skin cells and lipids, which form the human skin barrier. The measuring head of dermaMeter® is placed on the skin and draws water vapour into the sensor in the measuring chamber.

Measuring principle

As a result of diffusion of the body’s water, a pressure builds up, which can be measured as TEWL (in g/hm²). The system measures the water vapour flow density: JV= g/(m² x h) (mass of water vapour (in g) per area (in m2) and time (in h)). The technology of dermaMeter® is based on the principle of gas tomography. A measurement chamber is open on one side, measuring the gas concentration of water vapor that comes through a specific hygiene cap. The disposable hygiene cap only lets through water vapor to be measured. This results not only in reproducible and reliable results, but also assures absolutely hygienic measurement standard.

Benefit of dermaMeter®

	USP	BENEFIT	CERTIFICATE
1.	Accuracy	Objective measurement guaranteed, small changes of the skin visible
2.	Recovery Time	Health care professionals can measure in the same time often
3.	Cost per measurement	True health economic contribution
4.	Sensitivity	Verification of measurement handling
5.	Aging	Device always available and reliable, so far no recognizable aging (6 years)
6.	Handiness	Ease of use
7.	Mobility	Measurements are made easy location-independent, no cable, wireless data transfer
8.	Hygiene during measurement	Hygienically fully safe; Disposal sterile Hygiene cap during measurement
9.	Cleaning	Hygienic and clean, Internal sterilization after every measurement
10.	Medical safety approval	Certified medical standard ISO 13485 Class IIa
11.	Diagnosis	Detection of disease at an early stage for the first time possible. The disease can be earlier diagnosed earlier
12.	Noise	Patient feels well, health care has a quiet workplace

Reference and Studies

The TEWL parameter objectively measures the performance of the skin barrier. Through more than 2500 clinical studies the strong correlation between TEWL and a variety of diseases has been documented. A new study is published every 3 months.

Clinical Study dermaMeter®

Manfei Zhang, Bingjie Li, Sijie Wu, Jingze Tan, Yajun Yang, Alessandra Marini, Andrea Vierkötter, Juan Zhang, Hui Li, Tamara Schikowski, Li Jin, Jean Krutmann and Sijia Wang; A Genome-Wide Association Study of Basal Transepidermal Water Loss Finds that Variants at 9q34.3 Are Associated with Skin Barrier Function. Journal of Investigative Dermatology (2017) -, -e-; doi:10.1016/j.jid.2016.11.030

Deployment dermaMeter®

   ▶ Medical University / Research Institute

   ▶ Hospital (outpatient department & inpatient treatment)

   ▶ Labour