The role of allergy in atopic dermatitis is controversial. The atopy patch test (APT) has been used to investigate the association between atopic dermatitis and aeroallergen allergy.To determine the proportion of patients with atopic dermatitis with positive patch tests to common local aeroallergens and to compare this to controls with and without respiratory atopy, we performed APT, skin- prick tests (SPT) and IgE radioallergosorbent tests (RAST) on 73 patients with atopic dermatitis and on 38 nonatopic controls (13 with and 25 without respiratory atopy). The allergens used were house dust mite, cat dander, Bermuda grass and German cockroach. Only the APT for house dust mite showed a significant difference between the two groups. APT for house dust mite correlated with the RAST test, while APT for cat fur correlated with the SPT. The APT may be useful toevaluate aeroallergens in atopic dermatitis,but further work is needed to make it more reliable.
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