Contact allergy in atopics, who perform wet work in hospital

The relation of atopy, i.e. previous or present atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis/conjunctivitis and asthma, to contact allergy in hospital employees, who perform wet work, was studied. Patch tests were carried out with the ICDRG standard series. Among these workers the frequency of contact allergy was similar in nonatopics (21%) as in atopics (22%), who represented 33% from the whole group. Atopics were sensitized more often to balsam of Peru (5.1%) as well as to fragrances in total (8,5%) than nonatopics, (1.7% and 4.1%, respectively) (p less than 0.05). Same kind of tendency was found in the amount of rubber reactions, though the difference was not statistically significant. Nickel was the most common allergen in all workers.