[Etiopathogenesis of atopic dermatitis]

There is a wide variety of criteria in regard to the etiology of atopic dermatitis of neurodermitis. The allergic factor may play a very important role in its etiology. There is neither a general agreement on the importance of food allergy in this regard. Broadly considered, these patients may evoke intense positive reactions to intradermal tests to food and inhalative allergens, nevertheless it will be possible to establish that the lesions appear or disappear after the exposure of suppression of the antigens which evoked the positive reaction. On this basis, many dermatologists deny the allergic etiology in atopic dermatitis, even though in most instances no food skin tests are performed. In this study, 110 patients, both children and adults of both sexes, suffering from atopic dermatitis are investigated. The onset in most of the cases is before the age of six months, following the ages between 1-10 years; the groups between 6 months and one year, and 10-20 years followed a descending order per decade until 70 years. 60.9% of the cases showed food allergy to one or more food items. In 39% of the cases, no food allergy was found. The food-stuffs more commonly involved were: milk (37.7%), egg (26.3%) and fish (20.9%), followed by coca, wheat flour, seafood, fruits, vegetables and meat. A remission of the reaction followed the suppression of the allergen. Intestinal parasitosis is evaluated in relation to atopic dermatitis. 30.9% of the 110 cases were affected with intestinal parasitosis, being the most common the flagelates (lamblias), protozoa (amoeba) and nematodes (ascaris, tricocephalus and oxijrus). Finally, a concurrence is found between atopic dermatitis and other allergic diseases in 81 cases (73.6%), being bronchial asthma and asthmatic bronchitis the most frequent, and allergic rhinitis, urticaria and Quincke's edema less frequent.