Provider: Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic

TY  - JOUR
JO  - Anthropologie (Brno)
TI  - Variability of skin and hair melanin indices and of erythema index in Polish prepubertal children
AU  - Sitek A
AU  - Rosset I
AU  - Żądzińska E
AU  -  Antoszewski B
Y1  - 2017
VL  - 55
IS  - 3
PB  - Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic
SN  - 0323-1119
SP  - 297
EP  - 304
KW  - Melanin index ‒ Erythema index ‒ Pigmentation
N2  - 
N2  - Spectrophotometric analysis of human pigmentation characteristics plays an important role in medicine and
cosmetology. However, to correctly interpret the results, one must know the normal range of variability of pigmentation and
erythema in the population. This is of utmost importance for quantitative assessment of melanocytic nevi, hemangiomas,
and allergic reactions. The objective of the present work was to determine the physiological range of variability of skin and
hair pigmentation and of erythema in Polish prepubertal children. The study encompassed Polish children aged 7 to 10
years without any abnormalities in skin or hair pigmentation. A total of 802 children were examined. Constitutive skin
and hair pigmentation and skin erythema were evaluated using a dermaspectrometer. The LMS method (Cole 1990, Pan,
Cole 2004) was used for the construction of percentile charts presenting the distribution of skin melanin index (SMI), hair
melanin index (HMI), and erythema index (EI) values in the various age and sex groups. The presented normal ranges
of variability of SMI, HMI, and EI are the first Polish reference standards for these indices. The manner in which the data
are presented makes it possible to graphically assess these characteristics (percentile charts) as well as to conduct their
normalization using L, M, and S parameters. The normalized values may also be converted to percentiles. Standards may
be used in clinical practice, e.g., for evaluating pigmentation abnormalities and skin reactions to inflammations, irritations,
and allergies. Furthermore, they may be applied in designing dermatological and pharmacological research.
ER  -