Narrowband ultraviolet B and medium-dose ultraviolet A1 are equally effective in the treatment of moderate to severe atopic dermatitis.

Background: Phototherapy may be effective in atopic dermatitis (AD). Medium-dose (MD) ultraviolet (UV) A1 was introduced for the treatment of AD. Few immunohistochemical data are available pertaining to phototherapy in AD.

[Blue toe syndrome; a sign of end-arterial occlusion].

Three patients, two women aged 66 and 43 years, respectively, and a man aged 76 years, presented with sudden, painful, blue areas in the toes with intact peripheral pulsations. One patient had a myeloproliferative syndrome due to essential thrombocytosis, the second patient had thromboangiitis obliterans, and the third patient had a cholesterol embolism, possibly due to the use of oral anticoagulants. After treatment, one patient recovered fully and the other two improved significantly.

Photodynamic therapy with violet light and topical 6-aminolaevulinic acid in the treatment of actinic keratosis, Bowen's disease and basal cell carcinoma.

Background: Most clinical studies using photodynamic therapy (PDT) with topical application of delta-aminolaevulinic acid (delta-ALA) use red light because it allows greater depth of penetration. However, given the porphyrin-like spectrum of delta-ALA-induced photosensitivity, violet light provides a maximal overlap with the excitation spectrum of protoporphyrin IX, meaning that PDT with violet light uses less light energy to induce the phototoxic reaction.

Aim: To study the efficacy of violet light in combination with topical delta-ALA PDT in the treatment of pre-malignant and malignant skin lesions.