Skin Tests for Irritant Contact Dermatitis

Lee, Cheol Heon

Abstract

Irritant contact, dermati is causes significant disability to numerous consumers and individuals in industry. Irritant contact dermatitis accounts for more than half of contact dermatitis in the general population and this is highest in industrialized countries. The incidence of irritant contact dermatitis is difficult to evaluate because of majority of these patients never seek medical advice for their problem. Only a fev, typical characteristics for an irritant contact dermatitis can be stated. The diagnosis is generally made on the basis of the clinical picture. Several non-invasive bioengineering methods for quantifying and obtaining information that is not detectable clinically have been developed in recent decades. Recently rnany reports on experimental irritant contact de matitis using these new non-invasive bioengineering methods have been published. Irritancy test rported by many authors have been performed using various exposure methods and evaluated by several clinical scoring systems. It is not surprising therefore that there is nowadays a multitude of irritancy testing methods, which hampers the interpretation of results from different laboratories. This article reviews the various irritancy testing methods and patch test procedures t,hat affect the skin react,ion in exper mental irritant cont,act dermatitis.