Contact Allergens Causing Hand Eczema in Ethnic Kashmiri Population: A Study of 7-years

BACKGROUND: Hand eczema is one of the commonest eczemas encountered in dermatology practice. Contact allergens responsible for causing hand eczema vary from one geographical area of the world to another. Aim: The study tries to identify the commonest allergens causing hand eczema in ethnic Kashmiri population. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 800 patients were patch tested at a sole patch testing facility for the local population over a 7-year period out of which 278 were diagnosed with hand eczema. The morphological type of hand eczema was noted and the patch testing results were analyzed. Past or present relevance of the patch-test result to the clinical diagnosis was also analyzed. RESULTS: Hand eczema was the most common type of eczema patch tested over the 7-year period, constituting 34.75% of the patch-tested population. A positive patch-test result was obtained in 135 patients (48.5%) out of which it was found to be clinically relevant in about 65% cases. Nickel and potassium dichromate were found to be the two commonest allergens causing hand eczema in our population with positive patch test reactions in 45 and 27 patients respectively. Females showed a much higher incidence of hand eczema as well as higher patch test positivity than males (54.1% vs. 38.1%). CONCLUSIONS: Hand eczema with a positive patch-test report was found to be much more common in females than males and nickel and potassium dichromate were seen to be the commonest allergens causing hand eczema in ethnic Kashmiri population.