IRRITANT EFFECTS OF A DETERGENT IN WASH AND CHAMBER TESTS

Irritant properties of detergents can be tested by using patch and cha mber tests and various kinds of use tests. The aim of the present stud y was to compare the results of use and 12 mm Finn Chamber(R) tests. S tudy subjects (10 atopic and 11 non-atopic medical students) washed th e outer aspect of 1 upper arm with liquid detergent for 1 minute 2Xdai ly for 1 week. 48-h chamber test with 5 concentrations of the same det ergent in water were concurrently applied to upper back skin. Transepi dermal water loss (TEWL), electrical capacitance and skin blood flow w ere measured to quantify reactions on days 0, 2, 5 and 7. Irritant con tact dermatitis developed equally in atopics and non-atopics in the wa sh test, whereas in the chamber test with a 10% aq. solution of the de tergent, increase in TEWL was significantly higher in atopics than in non-atopics. The chamber test results thus predicted poorly the result of the wash test. This might indicate that the wash test and the cham ber test measure different aspects of skin barrier function.