Monitoring the Effect of Transdermal Drug Delivery Patches on the Skin using Terahertz Sensing

THz measurements of the skin of 5 subjects before and after the application of partially and fully occlusive patches for transdermal drug delivery. The patches were applied for 24 hours, the skin regions were then measured immediately after patch removal and 30 minutes and 4hours after the patches were removed. In addition to changing the backing material of the patch we also varied the propylene glycol content of the patch to observe the effects on the skin.<br>Regions on the left arm were treated with the partially occlusive patches while the right arm was treated with fully occlusive patches. Regions are numbered 1-4 where 1=3% propylene glycol, 2= control, 3= 6% propylene glycol, 4=0% propylene glycol.<br>The txt files are structured so the top two rows are the voltages measured by the pressure sensors at each time point. The first column is the time in ps and the following columns are the measured THz pulses for each of the 240 measurements, acquired every 0.25 seconds.