Hand eczema in patients with history of atopic manifestations in childhood

Abstract

A follow-up study of two groups of individuals aged 24-44 years, with a history of severe and moderate atopic dermatitis in childhood (n = 549 and 406 respectively), showed that the most common site of atopic dermatitis was the hands. The prevalence of hand eczema in the two groups was 41% and 25% respectively. The corresponding figure for a group of 222 individuals with respiratory allergy, but not atopic dermatitis in childhood, was 5%, and for a control group (n = 199), without family or personal atopy, 4%. In all four groups the majority of the patients had mild to moderate hand eczema. The fingers were the most common site in all groups. In 69%, 55%, 36% and 12% respectively, hand eczema was found simultaneously with other eczematous manifestations. Irritants were considered by 71-96% in the four groups to aggravate the hand eczema. Contact with various food substances, particularly proteins, was regarded by 38%, 43%, 30% and 9% as an eliciting/aggravating factor. Dust was looked upon as an eliciting/aggravating factor by 25% and 20% of the individuals in the two groups with atopic dermatitis in childhood, but by no one in the control group.

The importance of anamnestic information of atopy, metal dermatitis and earlier hand eczema for the development of hand dermatitis in women in wet hospital work

“…The importance of endogenous factors in the etiology of hand eczema in subjects with atopic dermatitis is also underlined in a study by Rystedt (6), who found that water and/or chemical exposure were insignificant as cause/s of hand eczema in a follow-up study on atopic children. In a report by Forsbeck et al (7) it was found that 50% of the subjects with AD and current hand eczema had their ftrst bout of ezcema prior to their first employment.…”