Topographic measurement of skin color by narrow-band reflectance spectrophotometer and minimal erythema dose (MED) in Koreans.

Abstract

Narrow-band reflectance spectrophotometer is one of the objective and quantitative devices for measuring the skin colors. There has been some controversy concerning the relationship between the objectively measured skin color and cutaneous responsiveness to ultraviolet radiation, including minimal erythema dose (MED). The aims of this study were to compare the color of Korean brown skin with that of Caucasians by objective measurement with the narrow-band reflectance spectrophotometer, and to determine whether the skin color has any correlation with MED in Koreans, and demonstrate differences in this correlation according to the anatomical sites. With narrow-band reflectance spectrometer, skin colors were measured at 17 body sites of 20 healthy Korean male volunteers after measuring MED for the same subjects. The constitutional skin color, as measured by the melanin index of the nonexposed sites, showed a statistically significant correlation with MED values, whereas the facultative skin color did not. The Korean brown skin showed higher melanin index and lower erythema index compared with that of Caucasians. We confirmed significant differences in the correlation between MED and melanin indices, depending on the anatomic sites. This suggests that selection from various sites, even among the nonexposed sites, is quite important and deserves further evaluation.