Contact allergy to a stocking dye

Fourteen eczema patients, 13 women and one man, were found to have contact allergy to a brown stocking dye which is a mixture of nitro- and aminodiazobenzene and aminoanthraquinone dyes. Eleven of the patients reacted to p-phenylenediamine; nine of 12 tested reacted to aminoazobenzene, nine to Disperse Orange 3 and four to Disperse Yellow 3. Positive epicutaneous test reactions to the dye were found in five of 362 consecutive eczema patients tested (1.4%).