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Introduction: Allergic contact dermatitis is an important cause of hand eczema. Patch testing is the only investigation available to prove the diagnosis of allergic contact dermatitis. Exposures to allergens differ according to geographical, occupational, economic and social factors. Accordingly, patterns of allergic contact dermatitis differ in different parts of the world and different regions of the same country. Aim: To study the causes of allergic contact dermatitis in adult patients with hand eczema with the help of patch testing. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving 54 hand eczema patients conducted between October 2013 and June 2015, at a tertiary care centre in Southern India. After a detailed history including history of occupational exposure and detailed examination, patch test was done on these patients with Indian standard series. The patches were removed after 48 hours. Another reading was taken after 72 hours. The readings were interpreted according to International Contact Dermatitis Research Group criteria and noted down. The data were summarized using mean and standard deviation for continuous variables and percentages for categorical and dichotomous variables. The test of association was done with Fisher’s-exact test. Results: Hyperkeratotic hand eczema was the commonest morphological type (29%), followed by discoid eczema. Pompholyx was significantly more common among patients with history of atopy. A total of 20 patients (37%) showed patch test positivity to a total of 25 allergens. Nickel was the most common allergen (11.11%) followed by para-phenylenediamine (PPD) (7.4%). Nickel (6 patients) and cobalt (3 patients) were the common allergens among women, while potassium dichromate (3 patients) and parthenium (2 patients) were the common allergens among men. Potassium dichromate allergy was significantly more common among masons and PPD allergy was significantly more common among hair dye users. Discoid pattern of hand eczema was common among patients with allergy to potassium dichromate. Conclusion: Majority of the cases of hand eczema are not due to allergic contact dermatitis. History of atopy is common among patients with pompholyx. Allergic contact dermatitis due to nickel remains a common cause of hand eczema.

Introduction: Previous studies indicate a higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome in psoriatic patients. This study aimed to investigate the association of metabolic syndrome and its components with psoriasis. It also studied the relation between presence of metabolic syndrome and disease duration in psoriasis patients. Materials and Methods: This was a hospital-based, casecontrol study conducted with 30 clinically diagnosed patients of chronic plaque psoriasis and 30 age- and sex-matched control subjects. Height, weight, BMI, blood pressure and waist circumference were assessed in all the subjects. Fasting levels of serum glucose, serum triglycerides and serum HDL were estimated by automated clinical chemistry analyser. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed by the presence of at least 3 criteria of NCEP ATP III with Asian modification for waist circumference. Results: Metabolic syndrome was more common in psoriatic patients than in controls but the difference was statistically insignificant (60% vs. 40%, p-value=0.12). The psoriasis group had a higher prevalence of elevated blood glucose levels and higher waist circumference compared to controls. Psoriasis patients had a higher prevalence of high triglyceride levels than controls, the difference being statistically insignificant (40% vs. 30%, p-value = 0.41). The prevalence of low HDL levels was significantly higher in cases compared to controls (86.7% vs. 60%, p-value = 0.02). There was no relation between presence of metabolic syndrome and duration of psoriasis. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that metabolic syndrome as well as dyslipidaemia is commoner in psoriasis patients. This underlines the need for screening of all psoriasis patients for early diagnosis and treatment of associated metabolic syndrome to reduce the high burden of morbidity and mortality.

Background: Pityriasis rosea is an acute self-limiting skin disorder of unknown aetiology. Recently human herpes virus 6 and 7 has been hypothesized to be the cause of pityriasis rosea. Objective: To determine the efficacy of acyclovir, an anti-viral drug, in the treatment of pityriasis rosea. Materials and Methods: A randomized, double-blind, placebocontrolled study of efficacy of oral acyclovir in the treatment of pityriasis rosea was conducted on 73 patients. Thirty eight randomly selected patients were started on oral acyclovir. Thirtyfive patients were prescribed placebo. The patients as well as the chief investigator were unaware of the therapeutic group to which patients belonged (acyclovir or placebo). Patients in both the groups were evaluated clinically after 7 and 14 days following the first visit and the data were analysed. Results: Follow up data of 60 patients was available and these were included in the statistical analysis. 53.33% and 86.66% of the patients belonging to the acyclovir group showed complete resolution on the 7th day and 14th day respectively following the first visit compared to 10% and 33.33% of patients from the placebo group. The findings were statistically significant. Conclusion: The study showed that high dose acyclovir is effective in the treatment of pityriasis rosea.