Patch Testing in Children and Adolescents: 7 Years’ Experience in Hospital Kuala Lumpur

ABSTRACT

Introduction:Allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) was thought to be infrequent in children. However, there isincreasing number of case reports and cross-sectional studies that indicate ACD is not as rare aspreviously thought. This study aims to explore the pattern of allergic contact dermatitis in childrenand adolescent patients.Methods:This is a retrospective study of children and adolescent patients between 5 and 19-years-old whounderwent patch test in the Department of Dermatology, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia fromJanuary 2010 to December 2016. Patch tests were performed with European Baseline Series andother additional commercial series. Readings were recorded according to the International ContactDermatitis Research Group recommendation.Results:There were 116 children and adolescent patients who underwent patch test. The median age of patientswas 14 years (range 5-19) with a male to female ratio of 1 2.7. Seventy patients had dermatitisinvolving the upper limbs (60.3%), followed by 61(52.6%) patients with dermatitis involving thelower limbs, 36(31.0%) patients with face and ears involvement and 31(26.7%) patients with truncalinvolvement. Of the 116 patients, 74(63.8%) had at least one positive patch test reaction. The 5most common allergens were nickel sulfate (39.2%), fragrance mix (17.6%), potassium dichromate(14.9%), cobalt chloride (12.2%), methylcholoroisothiozolinone and methylisothiozolinone (KathonCG) (8.1%) and thimerosal (8.1%).Conclusion:Around 64% of our children and adolescents had a positive patch test reaction. Patch testing shouldbe recommended for children and adolescents suspected to have allergic contact dermatitis.