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Robert S. Dawe, MRCP; Heather Cameron, MRCGP; Susan Yule, RGN; Irene Man, MRCP; Sally H. Ibbotson, MD; James Ferguson, MD

Arch Dermatol. 2002;138:1071-1076.

Objective  To determine if UV-B phototherapy clears psoriasis through systemic effects.

Design  Randomized, within-subject comparison of change in psoriasis in 3 plaques in patients attending for whole-body UV-B therapy. Change in patients' psoriasis plaques covered during UV-B treatment was compared with plaques in an untreated control group.

Setting  University hospital phototherapy unit.

Patients  The study population comprised 17 patients with chronic plaque psoriasis treated with UV-B and 24 psoriasis control patients awaiting UV-B phototherapy.

Interventions  Treatment with a standard 3-times weekly narrowband TL-01 UV-B regimen. Three similar plaques were randomly allocated to be covered every treatment, covered for 2 of 3 weekly treatments, and exposed to local UV-B every treatment. Similar plaques were selected in control patients (awaiting but not yet started UV-B therapy). Severity of psoriasis plaques was assessed using a scaling, erythema, and induration (SEI) scoring system.

Main Outcome Measures  Change in SEI score of the selected plaques over the complete treatment course for UV-B–treated patients and change over 3 weeks in SEI score of plaques covered during UV-B treatment compared with that of plaques in controls.

Results  There was a significant (P<.001) difference in how much the SEI score changed in the 3 plaques in UV-B–treated patients. It fell by a mean of 7.6 for uncovered plaques compared with 3.2 for plaques covered during each UV-B exposure (95% confidence interval for difference, 3.0 to 5.8). In patients awaiting UV-B, SEI score of plaques fell by a mean of 0.4 over 3 weeks, compared with a mean fall of 1.4 for covered plaques in UV-B-treated patients (95% confidence interval for difference in means, 0.1 to 2.0).

Conclusions  If UV-B therapy has any systemic effect capable of improving psoriasis, this effect is small and unlikely to be of clinical importance. It is insufficient to alter interpretation of findings of within-subject comparative phototherapy studies. UV-B phototherapy works for chronic plaque psoriasis through local effects.

From the Photobiology Unit, Department of Dermatology, University of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee, Scotland.

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