Low-dose ultraviolet A1 phototherapy for extragenital lichen sclerosus: results of a preliminary study.
BACKGROUND
Lichen sclerosus (LS) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease in which numerous therapies have been used, with only limited success. Because low-dose UVA1 phototherapy has been shown to be an effective treatment option for localized scleroderma, which shares several similar clinical and histologic features with LS, we initiated a clinical trial with this phototherapeutic modality in patients with LS.


METHODS
Ten patients suffering from extragenital LS were treated with low-dose UVA1 phototherapy 4 times weekly with single UVA1 doses of 20 J/cm(2). Forty treatment sessions were performed within 10 weeks, resulting in a cumulative UVA1 dose of 800 J/cm(2).


RESULTS
Low-dose UVA1 phototherapy resulted in a marked reduction of the clinical score and a significant (P <.05) decrease of ultrasonographically measured skin thickness as well as a highly significant (P <.001) increase of dermal density. The patients reported a remarkable softening and repigmentation of the affected skin.


CONCLUSIONS
Analogous to the treatment results in localized scleroderma, low-dose UVA1 phototherapy seems to be an effective and well-tolerated treatment option for extragenital LS.
Kreuter
Alexander
A
Department of Dermatology and Allergology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. a.kreuter@derma.de
Gambichler
Thilo
T
Avermaete
Annelies
A
Happe
Marcus
M
Bacharach-Buhles
Martina
M
Hoffmann
Klaus
K
Jansen
Thomas
T
Altmeyer
Peter
P
von Kobyletzki
Gregor
G
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008010:Lichen Planus / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011336:Probability; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D012867:Skin / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014467:Ultraviolet Therapy / Q000379:methods*