Clinical photodermatology

The monograph summarizes the harmful and beneficial effects of sun (UV) light from the clinician's point of view, based on the literature and the author's decades of experience. After a brief introduction to photophysics and photochemistry, it reviews the biological effects of UV light (melanogenesis, photoimmunology, etc.), skin types, and methods for testing photosensitivity. Photosensitive diseases are covered in detail: acute and chronic skin damage, phototoxic and photoallergic dermatoses, genodermatoses, photo-aggravated pathologies, etc. with its diagnostics and treatment, local and systemic photoprotection, and the therapeutic use of sunlight (UV) light in skin and internal diseases (indication areas, photo(chemo)therapy procedures). The book is primarily of interest to dermatologists. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, clinicians working in other fields, internists and paediatricians, geneticists and elemental biology specialists (biophysicists, biochemists) can benefit from it.