Reflection Spectra of Skin in Vitiligo

Abstract

Vitiligo is a disease with unknown etiology, which is characterized by skin depigmentation areas due to melanocyte death. Lack of clear understanding of pathogenic disease processes justifies the difficulty of choosing efficient treatment methods. Repigmentation is slow and not always complete. One of the key indicators in practical dermatology is objective assessment of skin cover condition for further diagnostics, definition of therapy and dynamics of the disease.The purpose of this study is to assess skin reflection spectrum in depigmentation areas, marginal layer and visible healthy skin before and after treatment of patients with vitiligo.21 patients having vitiligo were under observation; the patients were treated in the hospital of skin and venereal diseases of the Siberian State Medical University. The authors applied noninvasive method of spectrophotometry for the first time in order to study skin reflection spectrum of patients with vitiligo. Noninvasive medical spectrophotometry is based on dependence factor of integral optical properties of biological tissues and fluids in the conditions of homeostasis and in case of pathology. In order to assess the efficiency of skin disease treatment the patients were exposed to skin spectrophotometry before the beginning of the treatment and after the treatment itself with further measurements of the reflection spectrum integral criteria. The measurements were made in depigmentation area, on the boundary with healthy skin and in remote from depigmentation area of healthy skin.Obtained results indicate the difference of skin reflection spectra in the areas under investigation. Moreover, positive dynamics of the treatment associated with the decrease in the value of reflection spectrum integral criteria in the diseased area. There were no statistically important differences of the integral criteria, calculated based on measurement results of reflection spectra on the boundary of depigmentation area before and after treatment. Most likely this is related to active processes of repigmentation in the skin in the course of the treatment.For detailed study of identified phenomena there is a need for thorough study and expansion of the list of dermatologic diseases.