Abstract
WITH THE accelerated development of new drugs, cosmetics, dyes, and other materials which may contact the skin, there is an increased need for rapid screening methods for evaluating their sensitizing potentials. Animal tests have little utility, mainly because of species differences in sensitizability. The prophetic patch test procedure suggested by Schwartz and Peck 1 is of value but in some aspects is not entirely adequate for the purpose. In this test, the new material is applied to the skin for 48 hours under an occlusive patch; a group of 200 or more persons is used. The same group is retested in 14 to 21 days; new reactors are deemed to have been sensitized by the first patch test. Among problems encountered in carrying out this test is, first, the difficulty in distinguishing between allergic and primary irritant patch reactions. With threshold irritants, there may be variation from time to time
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