The European Standard Series and its additions: are they of any use in 2013?

Abstract

This study has two purposes: -to know whether the European standard series is still the key reference when it comes to contact dermatitis, i.e., are its components still the most frequently involved allergens in contact dermatitis nowadays? -to assess the results of the European standard series among French and Belgian dermatologists/allergists as, so far, most of them have failed to provide statistical data within the European community of allergists/dermatologists. 18 participants from 2 dermatology and allergy centres in Belgium and 11 centres in France collected their results from 3,073 patients tested in 2011. They assessed the relevance of some tests as well as that of the standard series and additional series to establish an etiological diagnosis of contact dermatitis. These results, together with the history of the European standard series, have shown that some allergens are obsolete and that others should be included in a new standard series for which we are making a few suggestions.

Is a specific eyelid patch test series useful? Results of a French prospective study

“…The high proportion of women in our study (90%) is similar to the percentage (70‐90%) reported in previous studies in other countries . It is higher than the 70% proportion of females in French patients patch tested for eczema with various localizations . This difference is usually attributed to higher cosmetic use among women, which is also supported by our study, in which 67.9% of the EACD cases were attributable to cosmetics.…”

“…The most frequent allergens of current relevance in our study were MI, fragrance mix I, nickel sulfate, hydroxyperoxides of linalool and limonene, and M. pereirae. These allergens are the same as those reported most frequently in the population patch tested for eczema with various localizations . The very high prevalence of positive test reactions to MI (10.2%) can be explained by the worldwide outbreak of contact sensitization to this allergen, in which the eyelids are a classic localization, but the mixture MI/methylchloroisothiazolinone was already recognized as a main allergen in EACD before the MI sensitization outbreak .…”

“…Each patient was patch tested with the EBS, the French additional series of the vigilance network in Dermato‐Allergology (REVIDAL‐GERDA), and an eyelid series. The French additional series is systematically added to the EBS in our French centres, and comprises 12 allergens chosen according to data from the literature and/or a suspicion of emerging importance . This series is re‐evaluated each year according to the proportion of positive results over the past year, and allergens are retained if ≥1% positive reactions are observed.…”

S3‐Leitlinie: Durchführung des Epikutantests mit Kontaktallergenen und Arzneimitteln – Kurzfassung Teil 1

“…Die Anpassung einer Standardreihe an lokale Gegebenheiten ist in Abständen erforderlich . Die aktuelle Standardreihe und weitere Testreihen der DKG sind der Homepage der DKG (dkg.ivdk.org/) zu entnehmen.…”

Allergic contact dermatitis: clinical aspects

“…Therefore, flexibility is the rule, and adaptations are constantly needed, following environmental changes. Some allergens can become obsolete, whereas others are emerging (20).…”