Allergic contact dermatitis in children and young adults

Patch testing in children: a study of 562 schoolchildren

“…Other authors have also established higher %s in their groups of younger children (6)(7)(8). Higher %s have also been recorded in adolescent groups (2,6), but in this study, which had only 12 individuals in the 13 to 14 year-old group, no positive reactions were observed.…”

“…In this study, neomycin produced the greatest number (16) of positive reactions. Though having a low profile in most other series (2,5,8,11), neomycin was also recorded as being the most frequent allergen by Weston et al (10). In Portugal, a large number of topical preparations are used, including ear and eye drops, which contain neomycin.…”

“…The different series published of children with contact dermatitis have reported variable o/os of positive patch tests: 28% by Kuiters et al (2), 33% by Romaguera eta!. (II), 46% by Veien et a!.…”

“…Contact dermatitis has been considered unusual in childhood (1,2). Marcussen (3) was the first to publish the results of patch tests carried out in children, both with and without eczema, using just 2 allergens, formaldehyde and nickel.…”

The sex of the individual as a factor in allergic contact dermatitis

“…One way to minimize the difference in exposure patterns between the sexes is to focus on juvenile contact dermatitis, assuming that female and male children have relatively similar exposure patterns. As children age, their incidence of contact dermatitis increases and makes a substantial upward shift after age 10, corresponding to increased exposure to allergens (39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50). Although it is impossible to isolate adults from the allergens that they face, looking at the male-female differences in contact dermatitis in children proves to be a useful method.…”