The Added Value of Patch Testing Beyond the Baseline Tray
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The patch test is the standard for diagnosing allergic contact dermatitis. Standardized trays allow the examination of the most prevalent allergens, whereas customized trays are more appropriate for addressing specific allergens and require expertise. They are therefore usually performed in specialized clinics. METHODS: We assessed the results of 4355 patch tests performed between 2012 and 2020 in a contact dermatitis clinic located in a large tertiary medical center. All patients were tested using the European baseline series and additional trays as clinically indicated. We assessed the frequency of relevant positive reactions outside the European baseline series. We then examined the added value and number of tests (NNTs) that need to be performed to elicit one relevant positive reaction per tray and common allergens. RESULTS: Nine hundred fifty-four patients (21.9%) had 1 or more positive relevant reactions; 43.3% tested positive for an allergen outside the European baseline series (OEBS). The acrylate and fragrance trays were highly represented among the positive and relevant reactions OEBS with NNTs of 4.4 and 6.8, respectively. 2-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate is the most prevalent allergen OEBS and is considered a marker for acrylate sensitivity with a high rate of cross-reactions and concordance rate of 85%, justifying its addition to the EBS in 2018. Other highly represented allergens include chloramphenicol, 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate, and Amerchol L-101, a lanolin derivative. The cosmetics and textile trays, although often tested, have relatively low added values of 3.7% and 2.3%, respectively. Surprisingly, the cutaneous adverse drug reaction series tray (CAD-1000) yielded no positive reactions, whereas testing the patients' medication yielded positive results in 10.9% of the cases. CONCLUSIONS: Expanded patch testing is crucial to accurately diagnose allergic contact dermatitis and almost doubles the number of patients with relevant positive reactions. Acrylate sensitivity is an emerging epidemic with a high positive reaction rate and low NNT, as is sensitivity to the allergens in the fragrance tray. 2-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate is a reliable marker for acrylate sensitivity with a concordance rate of 85%. Chloramphenicol is a common culprit and should be added to the standard tray in countries with a high usage rate. A low NNT was also observed when testing the patients' own cosmetics and medications; this should, therefore, be encouraged. The textile tray yielded a relatively high NNT; however, it should be performed when clinically indicated in the absence of a reliable marker in the EBS.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.006 | 0.031 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.005 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".