Analysis of the Profile of Cases with Eczema of the Hands Submitted to Patch Test in a Tertiary Hospital in the City of São Paulo Thesis by Nathalie Mie Suzuki. Advisor: John Verrinder Veasey

Introduction: Hand eczema (HE) is a high prevalence, recurrent and multifactorial disease. This term summarizes a group of eczematous diseases that affects the hands and are etiologically classified as irritant contact dermatitis (ICD), allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) and atopic dermatitis (AD). Few are the studies in Latin America that investigate HE patients’ profile and the disease etiology. Objective: Analyze HE patients’ profile that were submitted to patch testing in order to determine the disease etiology. Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was performed from the epidemiological data and patch testing results from patients with HE that attended a tertiary hospital in São Paulo city during the period of January 2013 through December 2020. Results: 166 patients participated in the study. 63% had a final diagnosis of ICD, 59% were diagnosed as ACD and 24% as AD. In 43% of these cases, an overlap of diagnoses was observed. The main allergens with positive and relevant patch testing results were: Kathon CG (26,5%), Nickel sulfate (21,1%) and thiuram-mix (10,8%). Study’s limitation: Number of patients and socioeconomic profile restricted to a vulnerable population. Conclusion: HE is a diagnosis that overlap of etiology frequently occurs. The main sensitizers related to ACD in HE are: Kathon CG, Nickel sulfate and Thiuram-mix.

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