title: Treatment of moderate and severe adult chronic atopic dermatitis with narrow-band UVB and the combination of narrow-band UVB/UVA phototherapy.
abstract: The phototherapy is a safe and effective technique for the treatment of adult patients with atopic dermatitis (AD). The treatment of chronic forms of the disease is most often done with narrow-band UVB (NB-UVB). There also exist effective phototherapy options against the AD. The aim of this study was to asses if the combination of NB-UVB with UVA was more effective than the treatment with only NB-UVB against adult chronic AD. We carried out a prospective and observational study. Adult patients with chronic AD with more than 50% of the total body surface area affected (TBSA) were included. The affected TBSA was calculated using the so-called "rule of nines." Patients with a clearance rate >75% of the initial affected TBSA or complete clearance rate were considered as complete response (CR). An analogue scale from 0 to 10 was used to measure the improvement grade of the pruritus. The treatments were repeated three times a week. The initial doses of NB-UVB and UVA were determined by patient's phototype. The treatments were performed using a phototherapy booth (UV7002, Walmann, Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany(®) ) with TL01 and UVA fluorescent lamps. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS(®) (IBM, New York, NY) for Windows 21.0. A total of 26 patients with adult chronic AD were included in the study, 16 patients were treated with UVB-BE and 10 patients with the combined treatment option NB-UVB/UVA. The mean value of cumulative doses and the mean number of performed treatments were similar between both groups of patients (p > 0.05). The mean value of duration of response was significantly higher in the patients treated only with NB-UVB, 101 versus 6.8 months (p ≥ 0.05). No differences were observed for the patients that showed complete response (p = 0.42) and in the analogue scale of pruritus (p > 0.005). In our study, the patients treated with the combination of NB-UVB and UVA were similar to the patient that were only treated with NB-UVB e. Further prospective and controlled studies have to be performed in order to determine the dosing regimens of phototherapy in adult patients with AD.
authors: Dermatology Department, Hospital Universitario Sanitas La Zarzuela, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Madrid, Spain.
authors: Montserrat
authors: M
authors: Fernández-Guarino
authors: Dermatology Department, Hospital Universitario Sanitas La Zarzuela, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Madrid, Spain.
authors: Sonsoles
authors: S
authors: Aboin-Gonzalez
authors: Dermatology Department, Hospital Universitario Sanitas La Zarzuela, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Madrid, Spain.
authors: Lucia
authors: L
authors: Barchino
authors: Dermatology Department, Hospital Universitario Sanitas La Zarzuela, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Madrid, Spain.
authors: Diana
authors: D
authors: Velazquez
authors: Dermatology Department, Hospital Universitario Sanitas La Zarzuela, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Madrid, Spain.
authors: Carmen
authors: C
authors: Arsuaga
authors: Dermatology Department, Hospital Universitario Sanitas La Zarzuela, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Madrid, Spain.
authors: Pablo
authors: P
authors: Lázaro
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003876:Dermatitis, Atopic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011701:PUVA Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D012074:Remission Induction; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology / Q000528:radiation effects*; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014467:Ultraviolet Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects
keywords: atopic dermatitis; phototherapy; treatment