Differential diagnosis of contact dermatitis: A practical-approach review by the EADV Task Force on contact dermatitis.

The diagnosis of eczema ('dermatitis') is mostly clinical and depends on the clinical history and exploratory objective findings (primary lesions, patterns). Contact dermatitis remains as an important condition in the group of eczematous disorders, with important socioeconomic and occupational relevance. Although irritant and allergic contact dermatitis have a different pathogenesis, both are characterized by a rather typical morphology, are triggered by external factors and tend to occur primarily in the area of contact with the exogenous agent. In addition, allergic and irritant dermatitis may also co-exist. The importance of diagnosing contact dermatitis, especially when allergic in nature, is both due to the possibility of avoiding the trigger, and due to its role in aggravating other skin conditions. Nevertheless, the heterogeneity of clinical presentations in daily practice may pose an important challenge for the suspicion and correct diagnosis of contact dermatitis. Furthermore, other conditions, with different pathogenesis and treatment, may clinically simulate contact dermatitis. The Task Force aims to conduct a review of the unifying clinical features of contact dermatitis and characterize its main clinical phenotypes, and its simulators, in order to contribute to an early suspicion or recognition of contact dermatitis and enable a correct differential diagnosis

Contact Hypersensitivity to European Baseline Series and Corticosteroid Series Haptens in a Population of Adult Patients with Contact Eczema

Contact eczema/dermatitis (CE) is one of the most frequent skin diseases. The disease is regarded as a reaction pattern. Usually many different stimuli can make the skin react in the same way, some of them may be in action at the same time. A golden standard in the allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) diagnosis are patch tests. Clinical observations show that the frequency of contact allergy to topical corticosteroids constantly increases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of contact allergy to European Standard Series and Corticosteroid Series haptens in the population of patients with CE.</p