Prognosis of unclassified eczema: a follow-up study.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the outcome of unclassified eczema (UE). Eczema refers to a set of highly heterogeneous clinical conditions including contact dermatitis (CD) and several types of endogenous eczema. In clinics, however, the eczema of a large proportion of patients does not fit any known patterns and has been diagnosed as unclassified eczema. The prognosis of UE is largely unknown.


METHODS
Cohort study with 1-year follow-up.


METHODS
Dermatology clinic in Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China. Patients All cases of UE in 655 consecutive patients with eczema patch tested with the European Standard series occurring during a 2-year period. Interventions At 1 year after patch testing, all patients were asked to revisit the clinic, and 599 patients returned (91.5%); of these, 192 had UE (32.1%).


METHODS
The rate of symptom-free skin for at least 3 months without relapse before evaluation.


RESULTS
During the follow-up period, only 15.1% of patients with UE had their lesions cleared, which was a much lower rate than for those with CD (50.4%) (P < .001; chi(2) test) but close to the rate of those with atopic dermatitis (7.1%). A total of 11.0% of patients with UE had atopic diathesis, and 72.4% of those with UE had a positive reaction to at least 1 contact allergen, which was a lower rate than that of patients with allergic CD (88.6%) but higher than that for patients with irritant CD (53.8%) (P < .001 and P = .004, respectively; chi(2) test); however, none of these results were relevant to eczema.


CONCLUSIONS
Unclassified eczema is a common type of eczema with a very poor prognosis. This important category of eczema should be recognized and studied further.
Li
Lin-Feng
LF
Department of Dermatology, Peking University Third Hospital, 49 N Garden Rd, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China. zoonli@sina.com
Liu
Guangren
G
Wang
Jing
J
D000328:Adult; D000485:Allergens; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003876:Dermatitis, Atopic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D003877:Dermatitis, Contact / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D004485:Eczema / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010328:Patch Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D000485:Allergens