N.M. BÂRLEA, SÂNZIANA IULIA BÂRLEA, E. CULEA
Physics Department, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 15, C. Daicoviciu St., Romania
It is very important to assess the skin condition for medical or cosmetical reasons. Bioimpedance Spectroscopy studies the frequency dependence of the electrical impedance of the biological material, the most interesting application would be the skin cancer detection. We studied electrical characteristics of the human skin, RS (series resistance), RP (parallel resistance) and C (capacitance), measuring with electrical impulses. The signal consists of electrical current impulses (width T’ = 0.0510 ms, the „ON” period) followed by a pause (width T” = 1100 ms, the „OFF” period) when the electrodes can not receive or transmit current (high impedance status). The potential difference and the current between electrodes are displayed with the oscilloscope. The method allows measuring the characteristics of the skin in a more direct and explicit fashion, and it makes possible to discriminate more phenomena occurring into the skin. The Maxwell-Wagner effect, an interfacial relaxation process, generates minimum two time constants for the skin. The longer time constant could be modulated by proper stimulation. It is important to note that the measuring current could be also the stimulating current and provides an easy way to avoid electrochemical burns, even before irritation appearance in chronic electric stimulation or iontophoresis
Corresponding author’s e-mail: mbirlea@phys.utcluj.ro
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