Sweaty skin, background and assessments

Overproduction of sweat, sweaty skin, and body malodors are felt unpleasant by many people in diverse social groups. This review summarizes the functional aspects of the eccrine, apocrine, and apoeccrine sweat glands as encountered in health and disease. A series of measuring methods are conveniently used to explore any trouble in sweat production. These include the gravimetric method, water evaporation quantification, skin staining procedures, dye injections, casting replicas, average electrometric assessments, and skin capacitance mapping / imaging (SCM). Qualitative assessment is provided by collection of sweat and volatile compounds followed by chromatographic analysis. At present, SCM appears to be the most valuable method for assessing the number of active glands and their individual sweat production by the eccrine and apoeccrine glands.