Table 1.
Cadaver and patient characteristics.
Fig 1.
Histological image of the skin in the axilla.
Sweat glands are located zonally between the dermis and the fat layer (left). The apocrine gland (top right) has secretory blebs (arrowheads) and secretory products (arrow) in the secretory coil. The secretory coil of the eccrine gland (bottom right) has two cell layers (inner: cuticular cell; outer: poroid cell) and is covered with myoepithelial cells.
Fig 2.
Depth of apocrine and eccrine glands from the skin surface in a histological study.
The two secretory coils start at the boundary between the dermis and subcutaneous tissue, and are distributed to a depth of 1500–3000 μm. The distribution of these two glands is almost the same.
Fig 3.
Sonographic image of skin in the axilla.
Sonographic image before (A) and after (B) Lidocaine injection are shown with in color. The sweat gland layer (green) is observed as a hyperechoic area between the dermis (blue) and the fat layer (yellow) in the hairy region. Hair follicles (arrowheads) are observed as hypoechoic regions in the dermis. Subcutaneous injection of the solution created space between each tissue, making it easier to identify the sweat glands.
Fig 4.
Relative ratios of mean grey values in the dermis, fat, hair root, and sweat glands compared to that of the interstitium.
Twenty sonographic images after xylocaine injection in 20 patients were analyzed using Image J. Excepted for the comparison between the root and dermis, all pairs of P values are under 0.01.
Fig 5.
Depth of sweat glands from the skin surface in a ultrasonographic study.
The sweat gland layer is located just on the dermis and distributed to a depth of 1500–3000 μm.