Reliable, low-cost, fully integrated hydration sensors for monitoring and diagnosis of inflammatory skin diseases in any environment

Surabhi R. Madhvapathy, Heling Wang, Jessy Kong, Michael Zhang, Jong Yoon Lee, Jun Bin Park, Hokyung Jang, Zhaoqian Xie, Jingyue Cao, Raudel Avila, Chen Wei, Vincent D’Angelo, Jason Zhu, Ha Uk Chung, Sarah Coughlin, Manish Patel, Joshua Winograd, Jaeman Lim, Anthony Banks, Shuai Xu*Yonggang Huang*, John A. Rogers*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

45 Scopus citations

Abstract

Present-day dermatological diagnostic tools are expensive, time-consuming, require substantial operational expertise, and typically probe only the superficial layers of skin (~15 μm). We introduce a soft, battery-free, noninvasive, reusable skin hydration sensor (SHS) adherable to most of the body surface. The platform measures volumetric water content (up to ~1 mm in depth) and wirelessly transmits data to any near-field communication–compatible smartphone. The SHS is readily manufacturable, comprises unique powering and encapsulation strategies, and achieves high measurement precision (±5% volumetric water content) and resolution (±0.015°C skin surface temperature). Validation on n = 16 healthy/normal human participants reveals an average skin water content of ~63% across multiple body locations. Pilot studies on patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), psoriasis, urticaria, xerosis cutis, and rosacea highlight the diagnostic capability of the SHS (PAD = 0.0034) and its ability to study impact of topical treatments on skin diseases.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbereabd7146
JournalScience Advances
Volume6
Issue number49
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 4 2020

Funding

S.R.M. acknowledges support from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF DGE-1842165). Z.X. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant no. 12072057] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant no. DUT20RC(3)032]. R.A. acknowledges support from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF DGE-1842165) and Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. Y.H. acknowledges support from the NSF (CMMI1635443). This work used the Northwestern University Micro/Nano Fabrication Facility (NUFAB), which is partially supported by Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205), the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (DMR-1720139), the State of Illinois, and Northwestern University.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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