Subject(s)
Dermatitis, Occupational/etiology , Animals , Brazil , Dermatitis, Occupational/diagnosis , Humans , Male , Occupations , Patch Tests , Risk FactorsABSTRACT
Nowadays 70% of the world's rubber supply is synthesized artificially. The process involved in its manufacture is vulcanization which requires many chemical substances for speeding the process, as antioxidants to prevent deterioration of rubber, or others. These substances may constitute important sensitizers and thus be responsible for dermatological diseases like contact dermatitis. The objective of this study is to search for the main sensitizers among these rubber chemicals in a population mostly composed by women of a tropical country and compare the results with the ones obtained from previous studies which tested populations mainly composed by men and on different climates.
Subject(s)
Dermatitis, Allergic Contact/epidemiology , Latex Hypersensitivity/epidemiology , Brazil , Female , Hospitals, Teaching , Humans , Male , Patch Tests , Patients , Tropical ClimateABSTRACT
This work consists in an evaluation of the occurrence of nickel contact dermatitis, its distribution between sexes and in which parts of the body the dermatitis usually occurs. It was accomplished a two year (1994-1995) retrospective study of 404 patch-tested patients which had previous clinical diagnosis of contact dermatitis. The occurrence of nickel sensitization was 19.8%, 88.8% of these 19.8% were women and the rest, 11.2%, were men. The lesions were present predominantly on hands, forearms, earlobes and feet. The authors comment about possible variations of occurrence of nickel contact dermatitis in rural areas and/or tropical countries.