Contact Hypersensitivity to European Baseline Series and Corticosteroid Series Haptens in a Population of Adult Patients with Contact Eczema.

Contact eczema (CE) is one of the most common skin diseases and is regarded as a reaction pattern. However, the skin can react in the same way to different stimuli, some of which may act together. The golden standard in the diagnosis of allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) is the patch test. Contact allergy to topical corticosteroids is known to be gradually rising, and this represents a significant problem in the treatment of contact eczema. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of contact allergy to European Baseline Series and Corticosteroid Series haptens in a population of patients with CE. A group of 126 patients with the clinical diagnosis of contact eczema were patch tested with 28 European Baseline Series allergens and 8 corticosteroid allergens in different concentrations and in different media: 80 (64.5%) women and 46 (36.5%) men, mean age 50.4 years. The average duration of CE was 6.9 years. In total, 65 patients (51.6%) demonstrated an allergic reaction to at least one European Baseline Series allergen, and 22 patients (17.4%) to at least one corticosteroid. The most common allergens giving positive results were nickel sulfate (26.2%), cobalt chloride (15.1%), budesonide (14.3%), potassium dichromate (13.5%), and myroxylon pereirae resin (MPR) (11.9%). According our data, the European Baseline Series tests allow the cause of ACD to be identified in over 50% of cases.