Minimal erythema dose after multiple UV exposures depends on pre‐exposure skin pigmentation

Abstract

Phototherapy consists of multiple ultraviolet (UV) exposures. Most previous studies have focused on erythema following a single UV exposure in fair-skinned persons. Although it is well known that phototherapy lowers the daily UV-threshold dose for erythema in clinical practice, this is insufficiently documented under controlled experimental conditions. The purpose of this study was to quantify the change in the daily threshold for a dose specific erythema grade after 1-4 consecutive daily UV exposures. Forty-nine healthy volunteers (skin type II-V) with varying pigmentation quantified by skin reflectance. Two UV sources were used: a narrowband UVB (Philips TL01) and a Solar Simulator (Solar Light Co.). Just perceptible erythema after 24 h was chosen as the minimal erythema dose (+); besides + and ++ were assessed. We found a positive and significant exponential relationship between skin pigmentation and UV dose to elicit a specific erythema grade on the back after 1-4 UV exposures. After repetitive UV exposures the UV dose had to be lowered more in dark-skinned persons compared with fair-skinned persons to elicit a certain erythema grade. This applied to both UV sources and all erythema grades. In the dark-skinned persons the daily UV dose after the 4 days UV exposure should be lowered by 40-50% to avoid burns compared with the single UV exposure. For the most fair-skinned persons essentially no reduction in the daily UV dose was needed. Our results indicate that the pre-exposure pigmentation level can guide the UV dosage in phototherapy.