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Comparative Study
. 2012 Sep-Oct;16(5):324-33.
doi: 10.1177/120347541201600509.

Prospective study of topical 5-aminolevulinic acid photodynamic therapy for the treatment of moderate to severe acne vulgaris in Chinese patients

Hong-Wei Wang  1 , Ting Lv, Ling-Lin Zhang, Ming-Xia Guo, Herbert Stepp, Kui Yang, Zheng Huang, Xiu-Li Wang
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Prospective study of topical 5-aminolevulinic acid photodynamic therapy for the treatment of moderate to severe acne vulgaris in Chinese patients

Hong-Wei Wang et al. J Cutan Med Surg. 2012 Sep-Oct.

Abstract

Background: Topical photodynamic therapy (PDT) mediated with 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) offers an alternative option for the treatment of acne vulgaris.

Objective: To study the effects of ALA dose, incubation time, and lesion type on protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) production and treatment outcomes.

Methods: To examine the time course of PpIX production, 10% ALA was applied to inflammatory papules for 1 to 5 hours and followed by in situ fluorescence examination. To determine the effects of ALA dose and lesion type, 3, 5, and 10% ALA was applied to acne lesions in split-face fashion for 3 hours followed by whole-face light irradiation at 633 nm and 30 to 70 J/cm2. Treatment was repeated twice at 2-week intervals.

Results: PpIX reached a stable level after 3 hours of incubation. Similar PpIX levels were seen in areas receiving 3, 5, and 10% ALA. Poisson regression analyses indicated that lesion counts decreased by 0.791 times for a one-unit increase in treatment times (95% CI 0.782-0.799 < .0001) but only by 0.999 times for a one-unit increase in ALA dose (95% CI 0.998-1.000 = .22).

Conclusion: The combination of low-dose ALA and a red light is a safe and effective option for the treatment of moderate to severe acne.

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