Abstract
Narrow-band UVB therapy is popular in Europe and America. Recently, this therapy has become an established choice of intervention in the treatment of psoriasis in Japan. The most important aspect of this type of therapy is the determination of the optimal irradiation dose for the patient. This dose can be ascertained by the minimal erythema dose in narrow-band UVB therapy (nMED) prior to the commencement of therapy. Our study has exactly measured, and analyzed nMEDs in psoriatic and non-psoriatic patients. We found that nMEDs have quite regular distributions. The average nMED for the psoriatic patients was 0.68 J/cm2 (median 0.49 J/cm2, range 0.32–1.62 J/cm2). There were no significant differences in the average nMED or its distribution for the psoriatic vs. the non-psoriatic patients. The average nMED in our psoriatic patients was slightly higher than those reported in previous studies.
