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©2014 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Pathogenesis and diagnosis of contact dermatitis: Applications of reflectance confocal microscopy
Jorge A Suárez-Pérez, Ricardo Bosch, Department of Dermatology, Virgen de la Victoria University Hospital, Spain and University of Málaga, 29010 Málaga, Spain
Salvador González, Dermatology Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10022, United States
Salvador González, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Dermatology Service, New York, NY 10022, United States
Ernesto González, Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, United States
Author contributions: Suárez-Pérez JA, Bosch R, González S and González E equally contributed to this paper.
Correspondence to: Dr. Salvador González, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Dermatology Service, 160 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022, United States. gonzals6@mskcc.org
Telephone: +1-212-6100134 Fax: +1-212-3080854
Received: January 12, 2014
Revised: April 3, 2014
Accepted: July 12, 2014
Published online: August 2, 2014
Revised: April 3, 2014
Accepted: July 12, 2014
Published online: August 2, 2014
Core Tip
Core tip: Contact dermatitis (CD) is the most common professional skin disease. CD is classified into irritant (ICD) and allergic (ACD), with both subtypes displaying sub-acute, acute and/or chronic eczema. The gold standard in CD diagnosis is patch-testing, although its validity and reproducibility are under question. Real-time reflectance confocal microscopy is a very promising tool for the diagnosis and management of ACD and ICD, providing significant advantage over conventional histology (due to the possibility to manage the disease through repetitive assessment) and patch-testing, due to increased sensitivity and specificity.