Free water content and monitoring of healing processes of skin burns studied by microwave dielectric spectroscopy in vivo.

We have investigated the dielectric properties of human skin in vivo at frequencies up to 10 GHz using a time-domain reflectometry method with open-ended coaxial probes. Since gamma-dispersion results from the reorientation of free water molecules, the free water content of skin is quantitatively determined by dielectric measurements. The free water content of finger skin increased by about 10% after soaking in 37 degrees C water for 30 min, and it systematically decreased again through the drying process, as expected. Thus this analytical method has been applied to the study of skin burns. The free water content of burned human cheek skin due to hydrofluoric acid was significantly lower than that of normal skin, and the burned skin recovered through the healing process. In the case of a human hand skin burn due to heat, although the free water content was almost the same as that of normal skin at the beginning, it decreased during the healing process for the first 10 days, then began to increase. Although the number of test subjects was one for each experiment, it was shown that free water content is a good indicator for evaluating skin health and can be well monitored by dielectric spectroscopy.