Ena Jain 1 , S.D.S. Rawat 2 , Rashmi Jindal 3
BACKGROUND Hand eczema is a common problem with multifactorial etiology. Both endogenous factors like atopy, stress and exogenous factors like contact with irritants and allergens have been incriminated in its causation and aggravation. OBJECTIVES To study the contact sensitization and its pattern in patients of hand eczema and association of contact sensitivity with severity of hand eczema. METHODOLOGY This study was conducted among 80 patients of hand eczema, from 1st January 2015 to 31st December 2015 in the Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprosy, Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences, Swami Ram Nagar, Dehradun. Patients were patch tested with Standard Indian patch test battery as approved by the Contact and Occupational Dermatoses Forum of India (CODFI). RESULTS Of the 80 patients, 43 (53.8%) were males and 37 (46.2%) females, with a male to female ratio of 1.16:1. Most of our patients (56.2%) belonged to 21-40 years of age group. Hyperkeratotic eczema (36.3%) was the most common type of HE followed by housewife eczema (26.3%), pompholyx (12.5%), fingertip eczema (8.8%), patchy vesiculosquamous and unspecified eczema (6.2%) each, recurrent focal palmar peeling (2.5%), and ring eczema (1.2%). Patch test to one or more allergen was positive in 42 patients (52.5%). Potassium dichromate was the most common sensitizer in our study, followed by nickel, fragrance mix, PPD, wool alcohol and balsum of Peru, parthenium, cobalt. CONCLUSION Contact sensitivity was found to be present in 52.5% of cases of hand eczema in our study. However, no significant association was observed between contact sensitivity and severity of the disease
