Premium
Intradermal testing in the diagnosis of allergic contact dermatitis
Author(s) -
Herbst Rudolf A.,
Lauerma Antti I.,
Maibach Howard I.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
contact dermatitis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1600-0536
pISSN - 0105-1873
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0536.1993.tb04527.x
Subject(s) - patch testing , medicine , allergic contact dermatitis , patch test , contact allergy , contact dermatitis , dermatology , intradermal injection , allergy , skin patch , immunology
Contact hypersensitivity may be diagnosed with patch testing or intradermal testing. Although these methods have been used earlier in parallel, patch testing has gradually become the only method in routine diagnosis of contact allergy. Recent findings in corticosteroid contact hypersensitivity have shown that patch testing is not always an optimal method, especially when poor penetrants are used. Therefore, a reappraisal of intradermal testing is presented, based on the literature. Studies employing both patch and intradermal testing are reviewed and the advantages and disadvantages of intradermal tests as compared to patch tests in contact allergy diagnostics are discussed. We find that it might be worthwile to evaluate whether contact allergy to compounds other than corticosteroids may be easier to detect with intradermal than patch test.