Peripheral oedema causes a swelling of the legs of a patient due to an abnormal accumulation of fluids in the interstitium of the patient. Oedema is directly related to heart diseases, kidney and liver problems and pathological conditions. As such, is a useful indicator of a person's overall health. Oedema is typically assessed by a subjective manual test administered by a medical professional. As such, an objective assessment of oedema is often difficult to make. The present disclosure concerns a device for tissue condition measurement. The device enables an objective assessment of oedema to be made, by providing to a medical professional, or a medical ancillary worker, with information useful to judge the presence of oedema. This is achieved by performing a photoacoustic analysis of biological components present in the tissue, and then by performing a physical test by advancing a blunt instrument onto the area suspected of oedema, withdraw blunt instrument, and then assessing the depth and/or rebound characteristics of the pit.
