Atopic dermatitis

Abstract

Atopic eczema is a mostly chronic, inflammatory, non-contagious skin disease that is accompanied by severe itching and often occurs in families, alone or in combination with asthma or allergic rhinoconjunctivitis. In most patients, IgE-mediated sensitizations to airborne or food allergens (extrinsic atopic eczema) can be detected. A distinction is made between a morphologically similar clinical picture in which neither specific IgE antibodies in the serum nor immediate-type reactions are detectable in the skin test against common aeroallergens (intrinsic atopic eczema). The prevalence of atopic eczema in Europe is 15-20% in children and 1.5-5% in adults. Scientific studies underline that in susceptible patients an epidermal barrier defect, together with microbial skin colonization and neuroimmunological processes, leads to an inflammatory response characterized by Th2, Th22, and Th1 cells.