Clinical Analysis Of The Patch Test In 110 Patients With Hand Eczema

Objectives: To discuss the sensitivity of contact allergens and the potential etiological factor of hand eczema, and tried to investigate the possible association between allergens and clinical features including gender, age and occupation.Methods: In this research, patch test result of 110 patients with chronic hand eczema, referred to our clinic from Jul. 2008 to Apr. 2009, were evaluated. The included patients did not be treated with topical or systemic corticosteroids in the last 15 days, or immunomodulator in the last 7 days, and did not used antihistamine for at least 3 days. The acute phase patients and pregnant women were excluded. One hundred and ten patients with hand eczema were tested with a standardized patch testing technique (Rei Ming) against contact allergens. The postitive rates of the allergens were studied within different groups divided according to gender, age and the occupation of patients. The data were stored and assessed using SPSS13.0. Theχ2 test was used for the comparisons. A one- tailed P-value less than 0.05 was taken to indicate a statistically significant association.Results: It was found that 85.5% (94/110) patients with hand eczema had positive reactions. The data from these patients showed the top 5 allergens were as follows: potassium dichromate, nickel sulfate, cobalt chloride, fragrance mixture and formaldehyde. The proportion of the reaction to paraphenylenediamine substrate and thiuram mixture and black rubber mixture in males was significant higher than that in females. The positive reactions were more frequently in some specific occupation. Conclusions: Patch testing is helpful in identifying the property of contact allergens in hand eczema and plays an impotant role clinically.