title: Dose modeling in ultraviolet phototherapy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Ultraviolet phototherapy is widely used in the treatment of numerous skin conditions. This treatment is well established and largely beneficial to patients on both physical and psychological levels; however, overexposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) can have detrimental effects, such as erythemal responses and ocular damage in addition to the potentially carcinogenic nature of UVR. For these reasons, it is essential to control and quantify the radiation dose incident upon the patient to ensure that it is both biologically effective and has the minimal possible impact on the surrounding unaffected tissue.
  
  
  METHODS
  To date, there has been little work on dose modeling, and the output of artificial UVR sources is an area where research has been recommended. This work characterizes these sources by formalizing an approach from first principles and experimentally examining this model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  An implementation of a line source model is found to give impressive accuracy and quantifies the output radiation well.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This method could potentially serve as a basis for a full computational dose model for quantifying patient dose.
authors.affiliation: School of Physical Sciences, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland. grimesd2@gmail.com
authors.forename: David Robert
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Grimes
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Robbins
authors.forename: Neil John
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: O'Hare
mesh_terms: D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D012867:Skin / Q000293:injuries / Q000528:radiation effects; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000628:therapy; D014467:Ultraviolet Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*