Abstract
Contact dermatitis comprises two main groups: irritant (ICD) and allergic (ACD) contact dermatitis. It presents as acute, subacute, or chronic eczema. Although it is possible to differentiate ICD from ACD on clinical ground, both diseases can have very similar clinical, histological, and molecular presentations.
The mechanisms at the origin of the eczema are different in the two types of dermatitis, at least as far as the initiation stages of the skin inflammation are concerned. ICD is a nonspecific inflammatory dermatosis, mainly due to the toxicity of chemicals on the skin cells which triggers inflammation by activation of the skin innate immune system.
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Nosbaum, A., Nicolas, JF., Lachapelle, JM. (2012). Pathophysiology of Allergic and Irritant Contact Dermatitis. In: Patch Testing and Prick Testing. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25492-5_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25492-5_1
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