Perspectives of the antipsoriatic heliotherapy in Poland

•Definition of standard dose to monitor antipsoriatic healing potential of UV radiation.•Schedule for the antipsoriatic heliotherapy in any midlatitudinal site.•Possibility of patient’s self-arranged out-door antipsoriatic heliotherapy.

Statistical analysis of the daily course of exposures to TL-01 tube radiation for 93 psoriatic patients from the Medical University of Łódź during 20-day phototherapy shows that the dose of 1 J/cm2 represents a unit of single exposure necessary for psoriasis healing. This value is converted to the antipsoriatic effective dose of 317.9 J/m2 using the TL-01 lamp irradiance spectrum and the antipsoriatic action spectrum. It is proposed that the daily exposure of 317.9 J/m2 serves as the standard antipsoriatic dose (SAPD) providing a link between the cabinet and the out-door exposures and it could be used for planning heliotherapy in Poland. A model is proposed to calculate ambient antipsoriatic doses for 3 h exposures around the local noon (9 am–12 am GMT) based on satellite measurements of ozone and cloud characteristics. The model constants are determined by a comparison with pertaining antipsoriatic doses measured by the Brewer spectrophotometer in central Poland. It is found that 3 h exposures to solar radiation in the period 15 May–15 September provides the mean (2005–2013) doses in the range 2.7–3.1 SAPD over Poland. Thus, heliotherapy could be treated as an alternative to the cabinet phototherapy for almost 4 months. It seems that the most effective site for antipsoriatic heliotherapy is the south/east part of Poland (the Bieszczady Mountains). The heliotherapy could be carried out in existing national health centers equipped with the standard easy-to-use biometers for on-line monitoring of UV level and controlling duration of sunbathing to avoid erythema risks. It is even possible to control the antipsoriatic heliotherapy by a patient himself, using low-cost hand-held instruments measuring UV index.