title: Contact urticaria due to polyethylene gloves.
abstract: We report a rare case of contact urticaria due to polyethylene gloves. The patient, a 46-year-old cook, had had had chronic urticaria since 1985, and first visited our hospital in June 2000. We began by prescribing antihistamine and antiallergenic drugs for him, but his condition did not improve. From a detailed interview, we established that when he put on polyethylene gloves at work, his condition worsened. We suspected some component of his gloves to be the cause of his symptoms. Prick and scratch tests with a solution extracted from his gloves showed a wheal-and-flare reaction at 15 min. We advised him to wear a cotton shirt under his clothes in daily life, and to put on cotton gloves under his polyethylene gloves while at work. Subsequently, the size and the number of wheals were markedly smaller and the subject's symptoms were reduced.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Dermatology, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: Keiji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugiura
authors.forename: Mariko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sugiura
authors.forename: Rika
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shiraki
authors.forename: Ritsuko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hayakawa
authors.forename: Mikihiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shamoto
authors.forename: Kazumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Itoh
mesh_terms: D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D017449:Dermatitis, Allergic Contact / Q000209:etiology*; D009783:Dermatitis, Occupational / Q000209:etiology*; D017575:Gloves, Protective; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008875:Middle Aged; D011095:Polyethylenes / Q000009:adverse effects*; D012882:Skin Tests; D013055:Spectrophotometry, Infrared
chemical_list: D011095:Polyethylenes