It’s an itchy skin condition whose name bears Greek origins. Eczema, or atopic dermatitis (AD), comes from the word ‘ekzein,’ which means ‘to boil over’, a reflection of the fiery inflammation and intense discomfort associated with this dermatological condition.
Despite the availability of topical medications to soothe these symptoms, it can be tough for dermatologists to chart the optimal course of treatment for each AD patient.
“Current assessment methods are mainly subjective and depend on symptoms self-reported by patients in questionnaires,” explained Dinish U.S, a Group Leader and Principal Scientist at the Translational Biophotonics Lab led by Malini Olivo, who is a Distinguished Principal Scientist at A*STAR Skin Research Labs (A*SRL).
“There is a lack of clear, objective methods to monitor the disease’s severity and efficacy of a particular treatment, so clinicians face shortcomings in properly adjusting the dosage of treatment,” said Dinish.
In collaboration with the National Skin Centre, Singapore, the researchers embarked on a mission to develop new non-invasive imaging methods to better track the status and progression of AD.
The team employed a technology called multispectral raster-scanning optoacoustic mesoscopy (ms-RSOM), which uses light and sound to painlessly extract valuable clinical insights from beneath the surface of the skin. The technique sends out short bursts of harmless lasers which penetrate the outer layer of skin. When the lasers contact dermal structures such as blood vessels, they emit faint sound waves, which the sensitive ms-RSOM sensors detect.
These then feed clinicians with detailed insights on the patient’s oxygen saturation levels and skin thickness, which they can leverage to properly manage treatment strategies. “By measuring oxygen saturation, information on the degree of inflammation can be quantified objectively,” said Olivo.
The researchers validated the technology in a cohort of 16 patients with either mild, moderate or severe AD alongside conventional diagnostic methods. Their analyses revealed that oxygen levels, skin thickness and blood volume increased with the severity of AD. Promisingly, these measurements matched with traditional methods like trans-epidermal water loss and erythrosine sedimentation rate.
Olivo, Dinish and colleagues also reported successfully using ms-RSOM to track the progress of a severe AD patient before and after treatment with steroids and cyclosporine where they observed marked improvements in oxygen levels and skin thickness.
Based on these findings, the group sees a bright future for ms-RSOM being used routinely in clinical settings to help assess AD severity and monitor treatment effectiveness. “We also believe that this study can open up new avenues for understanding inflammatory skin conditions and also for the formulation of new effective therapies,” said Dinish.
The A*STAR-affiliated researchers contributing to this research are from the A*STAR Skin Research Labs (A*SRL).
