Dermatitis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Dermatitis, including details on contact-, seborrheic-, atopic-, allergic-dermatitis, treatment.

Allergic contact dermatitis from povidone-iodine: a re-evaluation study.

Lachapelle JM

Department of Dermatology, Louvain University, 30 Clos Chapelle-aux-Champs, UCL 3033, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium. jean-marie.lachapelle@derm.ucl.ac.be

500 consecutive patients were patch tested with a 10% povidone-iodine (PVP-I) solution, diluted 10 times in water. Readings were made at 2 and 4 days. 14 of the 500 (2.8%) showed a positive test to PVP-I. The 14 positive patients to PVP-I were subjected to a repeated open application test (ROAT) with a PVP-I solution, as is; 2 of the 14 were recorded as positive. It was concluded that only 2 of the 500 patients had true allergic contact dermatitis from PVP-I (0.4%). This study emphasizes the need for more complete investigation, when testing with some allergens, when they share both irritant and allergenic properties, such as PVP-I. The approach is important to rule out false-positive patch test reactions and to assess true clinical relevance.

Published 9 February 2005 in Contact Dermatitis, 52(1): 9-10.
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