Introduction

The skin is a rather large organ comprising 16% of body weight. It contains several cell types and cell products. Three separate compartments are present and a disease may involve one or all. The topmost layer, the epidermis, is a very active metabolic area and disease involving this area is generally acute with oozing, weeping, and scaling. The dermis, which is quite large, gives support to the entire skin and body. Dermal diseases produce swelling, enlargement, and rigidity in the skin. A disease in the subcutaneous section of the skin, the third major portion, is usually nodular and edematous

Atopic Dermatitis

The term atopic, which means “strange disease,” was first used in 1925 to describe a group of diseases which include allergic rhinitis, bronchial asthma, urticarial reactions to drugs as well as food allergies or idiosyncrasies. These conditions have in common the presence of skin sensitizing homocytotropic antibodies (IgE) in the serum of the person at some point in the natural history of the disease. There is little evidence that dermatitis found in the atopic individual is produced by IgE which is present in the serum and skin of the person with atopic dermatitis