QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION OF ULTRAVIOLET INDUCED ERYTHEMA

Noninvasive determinations of the amount of cutaneous blood in the superficial plexus are made from skin reflectance measurements after exposure of human skin to UV radiation. The approach considers the skin as consisting of multiple optically distinct layers, and utilizes a previously experimentally verified optical model that relates the optical properties of these skin layers to skin reflectance. When the UV erythema is concurrently graded by visual inspection, our results show that each subjective grade corresponds to a broad range of values of cutaneous blood, and a wide overlap in blood volumes occurs between different grades. The amount of cutaneous blood increases with the UV dose, and follows a sigmoid threshold relationship. Erythema fades with time, but the rate of decrease in cutaneous blood is volume dependent. The sharpest decrease occurs when the amount of cutaneous blood is within 1.5 - 2.5 times the pre-radiation volume. Slower decrease occurs when the volume of blood is outside of this range.