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Allergic contact dermatitis often misdiagnosed

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Allergic contact dermatitis often misdiagnosed

Allergic contact dermatitis is often misdiagnosed, delegates at the recent European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology spring symposium in Valencia were told.

Magnus Bruze, professor of occupational dermatology at Lund University, Sweden told the symposium of one woman, who had been treated for atopic dermatitis for 50 years, but turned out to have contact allergy to a dye named disperse blue. Another patient in Sweden had been diagnosed with mycosis fungoides (a form of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma), but the correct diagnosis only came to light after he had watched the UK television programme, Watchdog.

After seeing a feature on contact dermatitis apparently caused by leather sofas (due to the dimethylfumarate used as a dessicant), the patient asked to be tested by his dermatologist. He was found to be allergic to dimethylfumarate and not to have mycosis fungoides after all. Another lady, who was a nurse in an intensive therapy unit, had experienced numerous bouts of severe eczema and eventually had been prescribed oral prednisolone 35mg daily.

She turned out to have an allergy to hair dye. Once the use of the dye was discontinued, her eczema cleared up. After discussing the cases, Professor Bruze concluded that patch testing should be undertaken more often.

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