Further to our research paper presented at the Eighteenth Santa Fe Symposium in 2004, an update on the knowledge concerning the relationships existing between metals of interest in jewelry and contact dermatitis is reported in this paper. The paper deals with a study on 920 individuals submitted to patch tests, where metals considered to be relevant for jewelry were studied. In this paper, preliminary results regarding a new possibility for the assessment of allergy by a modified patch-test method, where metals come into direct and prolonged contact with the skin, are reported and discussed.

Author: Dr. Andrea Basso, Andrea Friso, Massimo Poliero, Anna Belloni Fortina, Andrea Peserico, Ilaria Romano