FOOTWEAR DERMATITIS

We conducted a study to determine the prevalence and clinical patterns of footwear dermatitis, patch testing 50 patients with suspected foot wear dermatitis and 30 controls with 22 allergens of a shoe series (Ch emotechnique Diagnostics AB, Malmo, Sweden). The overall prevalence am ong contact dermatitis cases was 11.7%. The dorsa of the feet and toes were the commonest sites involved. 70% of patients showed sensitivity to footwear allergen(s), as opposed to 6.67% of controls. Potassium d ichromate and colophony were the commonest sensitizers. Other sensitiz ers were the rubber accelerators 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) and dip henylguanidine (DPG) and a dye p-aminoazobenzene. Of the 23 patients p atch tested with pieces or scrapings of footwear, only 3 showed positi ve reactions. We recommend that there should be primary and secondary footwear screening series to detect the responsible allergens, with th e ultimate objective of providing correct nonallergenic footwear for o ur patients, with the help of manufacturers and research institutes.