K. E. Malten

Reactions in selected patients to 22 fragrance materials

182 patients on the basis of 6 criteria were suspected of suffering from contact sensitization to cosmetics. 77 (42%) gave a positive reaction to one or more of a series of 22 fragrance and flavor raw materials. The hands were most often involved. Cinnamic alcohol, hydroxycitronellal, eugentol, coumarin, and abitol gave the most common positive reactions; less frequent were cinnamic aldehyde, dihydrocoumarin and dimethylcitraconate. Their relevance could not be traced. However, the first 4 substances were the most frequently identified in 79 suspected cosmetics sent in for analysis by the patients or their physicians. The stability of room‐stored petrolatum‐fragrance mixtures should be checked.

Contact dermatitis from acrylated resins in UV Ebecryl printing inks

a given participant, allowing each subject to act as his own control. Evaluation continued over a 48-h period and consisted of grading and describing any unusual cutaneous sensations. The grading scale was on a basis of 0 to 4 (2). An analysis of variance (ANOV A) with a repeated-measure design, incorporating 2 within factors and no grouping terms, was calculated to determine whether a significant difference existed in cutaneous sensation between sites topically treated with or without indomethacin. A therapeutic index was also calculated for indomethacin through the following equation:

Phenolformaldehyde resin in paper

Atypical clinical pictures due to contact allergy have often been described, namely urticaria, purpura, lichen planus like and others (I). Pustular reactions, however, have seldom been reported. Metals like nickel, chromium, mercury, arsenic, tungsten and halogens can produce pustular patch tests (2, 3); these are seen mainly in atopies and are of irritant type. Clinical pictures of contact pustulosis are even rarer. Grimalt & Romaguera ( 4) cjescribed a girl with an acne-like eruption of the face due to a nickel spectacle frame. A patient with subcorneal pustulosis due to trichlorethylene was reported by Conde Salazar eta! (5), in which there was no evidence of allergy. In our patient, the clinical picture was of plantar pustulosis. However, the localization of the pustules, the regular exacerbation in summer, and the absence of other skin lesions made us suspect contact allergy. References

Flare reaction due to vitamin B12 in a patient with psoriasis and contact eczema

ml of water or ethanol (Ultra-Turax, type 18/2), followed by cold maceration for 3 h. Filtrates were used for patch testing. Ten control persons showed no reaction on application of all the plant extracts mentioned. The patient reacted strongly to all cauliflower extracts and less so to extracts of tulip bulbs and onions. No reaction was observed with potato extracts. The positive reaction to tulips induced us to test tulipalin A (a-methylene-y-butyrolactone), the sensitizing agent of tulips (Verspyck Mijnssen 1968). Our patient reacted positively to tulipalin A. This explains at least partially the troubles caused by tulips. Allergy for cauliflower is only mentioned sporadically in literature (Touton 1932, Vaughan & Harvey Black 1954). Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis) belongs to the plant family Cruciferae. Sensitization by members of this family seems to be rare. Rook, Wilkinson & Ebling (1972) do not mention Cruciferae as possibly sensitizing plants. It should not be forgotten, however, that all Cruciferae contain glucosinolates (mustard oil glucosides). Some of the latter generate highly irritant mustard oils on hydrolysis. The possibility that, in rare instances, irritation by mustard oil-like compounds can be followed by sensitization cannot be excluded (Mitchell 1974). Our patient reacted positively also to other cultivars of Brassica oleracea (red cabbage, Brussels sprouts) and to rape seed (Brassica campestris). Just as other Cruciferae, members of the genus Brassica contain rather large amounts of hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives (Hermann 1967), sinapic acid and sinapin being the most characteristic ones. Patch tests with these and some related compounds such as ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid (Hjorth 1961) caused no reactions. 325