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Role of Contact Allergens in Pompholyx
Author(s) -
Jain Vijay K.,
Aggarwal Kamal,
Passi Shanta,
Gupta Sanjeev
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
the journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1346-8138
pISSN - 0385-2407
DOI - 10.1111/j.1346-8138.2004.tb00655.x
Subject(s) - medicine , patch test , potassium dichromate , allergen , dermatology , contact dermatitis , allergic contact dermatitis , allergy , cobalt chloride , immunology , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , cobalt
Fifty patients of both sexes with clinically suspected pompholyx were patch tested with the Indian Standard Patch Test Battery approved by the Contact & Occupational Dermatosis Forum of India (CODFI). Most of these patients were young adults between 20–39 years of age with a mean age of 30 years. The mean duration of symptoms was 4 years. The occupational profile of the patients included students (20%), housewives (16%), housewives engaged in farming (12%), labourers (12%), farmers (12%) and paramedical workers (6%). The miscellaneous group, including salesmen, teachers and photographers, accounted for the remaining 22%. The clinical patterns of presentation of pompholyx included cheiropompholyx (60%), cheiropompholyx and podopompholyx (36%) and podopompholyx alone (4%). Patch test analysis of these patients revealed that, out of the 50 subjects tested, 20 (40%) reacted to one or more allergens. Nickel sulphate was the commonest offending allergen (14%) followed by potassium dichromate and phenylene diamine and nitrofurazone (8% each), fragrance mix (6%) and cobalt chloride (4%), in descending order of frequency. Hence, patch testing may be considered for all patients with recurrent episodes of pompholyx as allergic contact dermatitis may be relatively common in such patients and the avoidance of offending allergens may be of substantial benefit to these patients.