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Pitfalls in the Diagnosis of Occupational Contact Dermatitis

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Kanerva’s Occupational Dermatology

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1 Core Message

  • The diagnosis of an occupation-related allergic contact dermatitis can be missed in the various stages of the contact-allergy investigation: the history, the clinical symptoms and localization of the lesions, the skin testing, as well as the determination of the relevance of a positive test.

  • Airborne contact dermatitis is very frequently caused by occupational exposure.

  • Basic knowledge on the chemicals contacted is essential, which is not obvious in an occupational context.

  • It is evident that the more experience the investigator has, the more in an accurate way allergens can be identified.

  • The knowledge needs to be based on a good training, keeping up with the literature, attending courses and meetings, and the use of relevant websites.

2 Introduction

The diagnosis of an allergic contact dermatitis is made on the basis of a clinical examination in which much attention is given to the nature and the location of the lesions,...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Contact Allergy Unit, Department of Dermatology, University Hospital K.U. Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    An Goossens

Authors
  1. An Goossens
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to An Goossens .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, Environmental Medicine and Health Theory, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany

    Swen Malte John

  2. National Allergy Research Centre, Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Herlev-Gentofte University Hospital, Hellerup, Hellerup, Denmark

    Jeanne Duus Johansen

  3. Department of Dermatology and Allergology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Thomas Rustemeyer

  4. Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Jena, Jena, Germany

    Peter Elsner

  5. Department of Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Howard I. Maibach

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Goossens, A. (2020). Pitfalls in the Diagnosis of Occupational Contact Dermatitis. In: John, S., Johansen, J., Rustemeyer, T., Elsner, P., Maibach, H. (eds) Kanerva’s Occupational Dermatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68617-2_83

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68617-2_83

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68615-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-68617-2

  • eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine

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