Contact Dermatitis: 20 Years of Allergen of the Year

Matthew Zirwas, MD, presented the session “Contact Dermatitis Update” on the first day of Dermatology Week 2022, with a discussion on the American Contact Dermatitis Society’s Allergen of the Year data from 2000 to 2020, what the most common clinical presentations look like, and how to provide appropriate recommendations to patients with a suspected reaction to one of these allergens.

The Allergen of the Year started in 2000 to focus on allergens that “have new and important findings, are underappreciated, or are generating more ‘concern’ than is appropriate,” noted Dr Zirwas. The first Allergen of the Year was disperse blue dyes. In the following years, other Allergen of the Year substances have included:

• Gold
• Bacitracin
• Cocamidopropyl betaine
• Glucocorticoids
• P-phenylenediamine
• Fragrance
• Nickel
• Mixed dialkyl thioureas
• Neomycin
• Dimethyl fumarate
• Acrylates
• Methylisothiazolinone
• Benzophenones
• Formaldehyde
• Cobalt
• Alkyl glucosides
• Propylene glycol
• Isobornyl acrylate

The first (non)Allergen of the Year was thimerosal, a mercury-containing compound that is only present in some flu vaccines and 1 tetanus vaccine. Dr Zirwas indicated that the North American Contact Dermatitis Group “doesn’t even patch test for it anymore.” In 2019, another (non)Allergen of the Year was named: parabens. According to Dr Zirwas, parabens were chosen “in order to emphasize their safety and infrequency as a cause of contact dermatitis.” He added that in paraben-free products, the parabens are often replaced with “something that is more likely to cause contact dermatitis than the parabens.”

Dr Zirwas concluded, “Now that we have 20 years of Allergen of the Year, it [makes] a great review and update on contact dermatitis.”

Reference

Zirwas MJ. Contact dermatitis update. Presented at: Dermatology Week 2022; May 11–14, 2022; Virtual.