Although treament with PUVA or etretinate is effective for psoriasis, both treatment regimens have limitation because of the risk of long-term toxicity.

The present study was performed to compare the clinical effects of PUVA and retinoid-PUVA.

Twenty five chronic plaque psoriasis patients with more than 20% involvement of the skin suface were included in this study. Sixteen patiens were treated with the PUVA therapy and nine patients were treated with retinoid-PUVA.

the number of phototherapy and cumulative UVA doses of retinoid-PUVA were significantly smaller than those of PUVA therapy.

Combining PUVA with etretinate in the tretment of psoriasis may lead to lowering of total number of PUVA treatments and the cumulative dosage and it may be possible to shorten the duration of using etretinate.