Importance

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Abstract

An aesthesiometer consisting of an elongated length-calibrated support bar with a handle at one end. The bar has a longitudinal groove communicating with a hole near the other end of the bar. A steel wire is fastened to the handle and lies in the groove, the wire having a right-angled bend forming a depending skin probe arm which extends through the hole. An adjustable wire-retaining block is slidably engaged on the support bar and has a flange depending into the groove and holding down the wire, thus regulating the length of the flexible portion of the wire and thus controlling the effective stiffness of the flexible portion. The upward deflection of the right-angled bend is read quantitatively on an arcuate concentric series of scale lines on a scale card attached to the free end of the support bar. The deflection readings relative to the arcuate scale lines and the longitudinal position settings of the wire-retaining block on the support bar are used in conjunction with a top loading balance platform scale to form calibration curves to measure the stress on a skin area of the patient in terms of the readings obtained from the deflection scale and the longitudinally set positions of the wire-retaining block on the support bar.

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First Claim