Evaluation of impedance of the epidermal stratum corneum in dialysis patients

• Published in: Journal of Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy Vol. 22; no. 4; pp. 417 - 420
• Main Authors: Numata, Akira, Nakakita, Takashi, Tsutsui, Nobuhiro, Furukawa, Atsuko, Imagawa, Akio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy 1989
• ISSN: 0911-5889; 1884-6211
• DOI: 10.4009/jsdt1985.22.417

Although dry skin is believed to be a cause of pruritus in dialysis patients, no quantitative report has been made. We measured the impedance of the epidermal stratum corneum, impedance being inversely related to skin water content, in 39 healthy subjects, 37 hemodialysis (HD) patients, and 11 continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients, and afterwards considered regular adoption of this method for evaluation of the degree of skin dryness in dialysis patients. Using SKICON-100 (IBS Co.), impedance was measured at three sites; the palm, flexor aspect of the forearm, and cheek. The impedance of palm and flexor aspect of the forearm in dialysis patients was significantly higher than in healthy subjects. Furthermore, we found a significant correlation with age, and differences according to the presence or absence of pruritus. In contrast, there was no significant correlation with period of dialysis, changes before and after dialysis, or across different diseases. The above results showed that dialysis patients generally had drier skin than healthy subjects, and that determination of the impedance of the epidermal stratum corneum was generally useful for quantitative evaluation of the degree of dryness. A significantly higher impedance was seen in most cases with pruritus, although there were some cases with severe pruritus that showed a low impedance. Threfore, dryness of the skin alone cannot completely explain the pruritus in dialysis patients. In the future, determination of impedance of the epidermal stratum corneum, before and after treatment, will be considered one index for clarification of the cause of pruritus.