Etiology and prognosis of hand eczema in a dermatology clinic in China: a follow-up study.
BACKGROUND
Prognosis of hand eczema (HE) has not been reported in China.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the etiology and outcome of HE in 655 consecutive patients patch tested with European standard series in Peking University Hospital in a 2-year period.


METHODS
All patients were re-examined at 1 year after patch testing, and prognosis of dermatitis was evaluated by the rate of clearance of skin symptoms for at least 3 months without relapse before the evaluation.


RESULTS
Of 599 patients examined, 82 (13.7%) were HE. Allergic, irritant, and unclassified HE accounted for 23.2%, 17.1%, and 51.3% of HE, respectively. The overall clearance rate of HE was much lower than that of eczema elsewhere (18.3% versus 29.6%, P < 0.05, chi-squared test). 35.7% of patients with allergic HE and 26.3% with irritant HE cleared their lesions, of those with unclassified HE only 11.9% (P < 0.05, chi-squared test). The lowest healing rate (5.7%) was found in unclassified HE patients with disease duration over 6 months.


CONCLUSIONS
The outcome of HE was worse than eczema elsewhere. Allergic HE had a better prognosis than unclassified HE. Longer disease duration was the main risk factor for poor prognosis of unclassified HE.
Li
Lin-feng
LF
Department of Dermatology, Peking University Third Hospital, 49 North Garden Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China. zoonli@sina.com
Liu
Guangren
G
Wang
Jing
J
D000328:Adult; D000485:Allergens / Q000009:adverse effects; D002681:China; D017449:Dermatitis, Allergic Contact / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D017453:Dermatitis, Irritant / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006229:Hand Dermatoses / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010328:Patch Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D000485:Allergens