'Dry' skin in atopic dermatitis. II. A surface profilometry study.

In patients with atopic dermatitis, the skin is often 'dry' on non-eczematous areas, and feels rough to the touch. In the scanning electron microscope (SEM) this roughness corresponds to a change in the skin surface, from regular major and minor furrows into a coarse and irregular pattern. In the present study the topography of normal skin and 'dry' atopic skin was quantitatively recorded using a profilometry method. A computer-based three-dimensional reconstruction of the skin surface was made from replicas, and common roughness parameters were calculated. It was found that in the 'dry' atopic skin roughness parameters Ra, Rq, and Rmax, were significantly increased, whereas the number of peaks, Rn, was decreased. Parameters describing the shape (skewness, kurtosis, and delta a) of the profile were not significantly different. These topographical data clearly support the visual impression of the surface pattern of 'dry' atopic skin found in SEM.