Calcipotriol betamethasone ointment combined with narrow band-ultraviolet B in the treatment of plaque-type psoriasis: a randomized controlled study

Abstract

Objective To assess the efficacy and safety of calcipotriol betamethasone ointment combined with narrow band-ultraviolet B (NB-UVB) for the treatment of plaque-type psoriasis.Methods A randomized,single-blind,parallel-controlled,multi-center clinical trial was conducted.Totally,108 patients with plaque-type psoriasis were randomly divided into the experiment group (treated with NB-UVB plus topical calcipotriol betamethasone ointment once daily in the evening) and control group (treated with NB-UVB only).The treatment lasted four weeks.The safety and efficacy were evaluated at the baseline,as well as two and four weeks after the beginning of treatment.Patients were scheduled for follow-up on week 1,2 and 4 after the end of treatment.Results The response rate was 15.09％ in the experiment group and 2.04％ in the control group after two-week treatment (P ＜ 0.01),77.36％ in the experiment group and 26.53％ in the control group at the end of treatment (P ＜ 0.01).Psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) score was similar between the two groups at the baseline,but significantly different from week 2 to week 8 after the beginning of treatment (all P ＜ 0.0I).Adverse reaction was observed in none of these patients,except for one patient in the control group who developed painful erythema in non-lesional sites of both legs.There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups.Conclusion Calcipotriol betamethasone ointment combined with NB-UVB is a safe and effective treatment choice for plaque-type psoriasis with rapid onset of action.