Extended report
UVA-1 cold light treatment of SLE: a double blind, placebo
controlled crossover trial
M C A Poldermana, T W J Huizingab, S Le Cessiec, S Pavela
a Department of
Dermatology, Leiden University Medical Centre, The Netherlands, b Department of Rheumatology, Leiden University
Medical Centre, c Department
of Medical Statistics, Leiden University Medical Centre
Correspondence to: Dr M C A Polderman, Department of Dermatology, B1-Q, Leiden University Medical Centre, PB 9600, 2300 RC, Leiden, The Netherlands dermatol{at}euronet.nl
Accepted for publication 5 June 2000
OBJECTIVE
Treatment of
patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) often implies strong
drugs with possibly serious side effects. Thus there is a need for new
immunosuppressive treatments. Long wave ultraviolet A (UVA-1) cold
light therapy is an anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory
treatment with a possible systemic effect and few side effects. In the
current study low dose UVA-1 cold light treatment was tested to
determine whether it reduces disease activity in SLE.
METHODSEleven
patients with SLE were treated with UVA-1 cold light treatment and a
placebo light treatment in a double blind, placebo controlled,
crossover study. In two consecutive 12 week periods the patients were
treated in the first three weeks with UVA-1 and placebo treatment or
vice versa. The primary variables were the SLE Disease Activity Index
(SLEDAI) and SLE Activity Measure (SLAM).
RESULTSThe mean SLAM
and SLEDAI showed a significant decrease of 30.4% (p=0.0005) and
37.9% (p=0.016) respectively after three weeks of UVA-1 and a
non-significant decline of 9.3% (p=0.43) and 12.2% (p=0.54)
respectively after three weeks of placebo treatment. In this small
trial the difference in reduction of the disease activity indices
during UVA-1 compared with during placebo treatment failed to reach the
conventional border of significance (p=0.07). The total score of
quality of life measure RAND-36 did not improve significantly, but the
subscore for vitality did improve.
CONCLUSIONLow dose
UVA-1 cold light treatment was strongly suggestive of lowering disease
activity in this double blind placebo controlled study, and no side
effects occurred.
© 2001 by Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Yuen, S. Y., Pope, J. E.
(2008). Learning from past mistakes: assessing trial quality, power and eligibility in non-renal systemic lupus erythematosus randomized controlled trials. Rheumatology (Oxford)
47: 1367-1372
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Mcelhone, K, Abbott, J, Teh, L -S
(2006). A review of health related quality of life in systemic lupus erythematosus. Lupus
15: 633-643
[Abstract] -
Szegedi, A., Simics, E., Aleksza, M., Horkay, I., Gaal, K., Sipka, S., Hunyadi, J., Kiss, E.
(2005). Ultraviolet-A1 phototherapy modulates Th1/Th2 and Tc1/Tc2 balance in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Rheumatology (Oxford)
44: 925-931
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Polderman, M. C. A., le Cessie, S., Huizinga, T. W. J., Pavel, S.
(2004). Efficacy of UVA-1 cold light as an adjuvant therapy for systemic lupus erythematosus. Rheumatology (Oxford)
43: 1402-1404
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Menon, Y, McCarthy, K, McGrath, H Jr
(2003). Reversal of brain dysfunction with UV-A1 irradiation in a patient with systemic lupus. Lupus
12: 479-482
[Abstract]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
