THE COMMON ALLERGENS OF CONTACT DERMATITIS

Allergic contact dermatitis is a common inflammatory skin disease, caused by exposure to specific allergens. Patch testing is a unique tool for diagnosing allergic contact dermatitis. The aim to identify the most common allergens found on the patch testing that was applied to the patients that have been suspected with allergic contact dermatitis di¬agnosed in our policlinic at Elbasani district. A total of 204 consecutive patients presenting with signs/symptoms of suspected allergic contact dermatitis were patch tested January 2010 to December 2012. The patients were tested with the 23-allergen European standard series. Patch-tests were performed and read in accordance with the guidelines of the ICDRG. A total of 157 (77%) 95%CI 70.7 ? 82.2 patients showed positivity to one or more allergens. 64 (40.8%) of these hundred and fifty seven patients were male whereas 59.2% were females with a significant difference between them, p<0.01. The most frequently reaction detected allergens were: nickel sulphate 50 (13.6%), potassium dichromate 21 (11.5%) cobalt chloride 32 (9.5%), fragrance mix 30 (7.6%), and neomycin sulfate 20 (6.4.0%). Nickel sulfate (27.4%) was the most common allergen in women, followed by cobalt chloride (14.6%) and fragrance mix (12.2%). As in other studies nickel sulfate was found to be the most common contact allergen, mostly affecting women.