RETINOIC ACID AND SKIN AGING

RETINOIC ACID AND SKIN AGING: VERIFYING EFFICACY USING ULTRASOUND

SKIN IMAGING THROUGH HIGH-FREQUENCY PROBE

D. Feleppa, Councillor of the Italian Society of Aesthetic Medicine (SIME) / Consigliere della

Societ. Italiana di Medicina Estetica (SIME)

A. Marigliani, Roma

Aging is often experienced as an “imperfection” and, as such, the Aesthetic Medicine is called to

consider it to set some solutions. Skin aging is the result of advancing age and chronic exposure to

ultraviolet rays, which, during the time, cause changes of the cellular DNA level and the formation

of altered proteins, both in terms of quantity and quality. Retinoic acid is a molecule known in the

field of remedial programs in aesthetic medicine because is able to regress the cellular, structural

and functional damages, induced by chronological and photo induced aging. In our study we wanted

to verify on Åã5 patients the efficacy of retinoic acid in topical application for two consecutive

months, testing the results using ultrasound skin imaging with 18 MHz probe. The ultrasound

images of each patient before and after treatment, have been studied in comparison to show the

increase of the dermo-epidermal thickness obtained at the end of the treatment. The quantitative and

qualitative assessment of superficial skin plans shows clearly all the benefits induced by retinoic

acid.