MONDAY, Oct. 2, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Children with atopic dermatitis (AD) are more likely to have positive patch test (PPT) reactions, according to a study published online Sept. 25 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Hadley Johnson, from the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis, and colleagues provided updated prevalence data of common contact allergens in children with and without AD in a retrospective case-control study. Data were included for 912 children: 615 with and 297 without AD.

The researchers found that children with AD were significantly more likely than those without AD to have a longer history of dermatitis (4.1 versus 1.6 years), have seen more providers (2.3 versus 2.1), have more than one PPT result, have a greater number of PPT results (2.3 versus 1.9), and have a more generalized distribution of dermatitis. Compared with those without AD, children with AD had significantly increased PPT to bacitracin, carba mix, and cocamidopropyl betaine.

"Patients can have atopic dermatitis and allergic contact dermatitis at the same time, and it all looks like the same thing," coauthor JiaDe Yu, M.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said in a statement. "The overall eczema may look very severe but once you remove the allergic component, the eczema seems much more manageable. A board-certified dermatologist can provide you with an accurate diagnosis by performing a patch test to determine whether you have allergic contact dermatitis and determine how to appropriately treat it."