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NORMALIZED STRESS–STRAIN RELATIONSHIP IN HUMAN HAIR PERTURBATION BY HYPOTHYROIDISM |
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| Authors: | EDWARD KORSTOFF HOWARD M. RAWNSLEY WALTER B. SHELLEY |
| Affiliation: | Schools of Metallurgy and Materials Science and Dental Medicine;the Department of Pathology and the Department of Dermatology of the School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U. S. A. |
| Abstract: | SUMMARY.— A short review is given of the observations which have been made on the mechanical properties of human hair under axial tension. Stress–strain curves of dry single fibres of human hair from patients with hypothyroidism and acromegaly revealed a distinctive alteration in the high yield region. The biophysical basis for this anomalous behaviour is not known. Attention is directed to the potential value of further studies of the physical characteristics of hair with special reference to mass screening programmes for evidence of disease. This aim is furthered by the technique introduced in this paper for distinguishing the abnormal from the normal. |
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