Contact hypersensitivity to Indian standard patch test series correlates with disease severity among children with atopic dermatitis.

Background There is emerging evidence of a relationship between atopic dermatitis (AD) and allergic contact dermatitis (ACD), though the data available are scarce with conflicting viewpoints. We explored the occurrence of contact hypersensitivity among children with atopic dermatitis by patch testing them with the Indian standard series and tried to correlate the presence of contact hypersensitivity with the clinical severity of AD in these children. Methods In this single-centre, cross-sectional study, children between 6 months and 12 years diagnosed with atopic dermatitis were included and patch tested with the Indian standard series. Outcome parameters were the proportion of patients having positive patch-test reactions, the proportion of positive patch-test reactions for each allergen and factors associated with patch test positivity in atopic dermatitis. Results Of the 136 patients, 80 were boys. The mean age of the study population was 5.6 ± 3.2 years. Twenty-eight (20.6%) patients had patch test positivity at 96 h. Fragrance mix was the commonest allergen, followed by potassium dichromate, cobalt chloride hexahydrate and nickel. SCORing atopic dermatitis (SCORAD) was significantly higher in patients with positive patch tests as compared to patients with negative patch tests (P = 0.009). Conclusion Greater disease severity in atopic dermatitis was found to be associated with patch test positivity. Limitations Inability to establish relevance in about 50% of the patients was a limitation of our study. Follow-up data regarding the impact of allergen avoidance is not available.

A comparative study on the turnaround time of article processing in dermatology journals: A need for improvement of this aspect in Indian journals.

INTRODUCTION: Submission and publishing of research articles in scientific journals is a multistep process that should be efficient and swift. OBJECTIVE: To compare the editorial, peer review and publication time between Indian dermatology journals and international dermatology journals. METHODS: Three Indian (Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology; Indian Journal of Dermatology and Indian Dermatology Online Journal) and three international (International Journal of Dermatology; the Australasian Journal of Dermatology and Dermatology [Karger]) dermatology journals were identified for this study. Information pertaining to time to acceptance, time to publication and the total time to publication were extracted for original articles, case reports and letters to the editor published in issues from January 2017 to December 2017. RESULTS: The mean total time to publication in the order for Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology, Indian Dermatology Online Journal, Indian Journal of Dermatology, International Journal of Dermatology, Dermatology and Australasian Journal of Dermatology were 12.61, 12.50, 9.14, 7.92, 7.13 and 6.52 months respectively. While time to acceptance and time to publication were the longest in Indian Journal of Dermatology (7.01 months) and Indian Dermatology Online Journal (8.99 months), respectively, Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology was found to have the maximum overall total time for publication i.e. 12.61 months. The differences among the journals were found to be significant for all three time measures (P < 0.0001, ANOVA). On comparison of Indian and international journals, all three time measures were found to be higher in Indian journals (5.81 vs 4.96 months, 6.75 vs 3.59 months and 11.53 vs 7.51 months, respectively) with the differences being significant (P < 0.0001, independent samples t-test). LIMITATION: This data does not represent the performance status of rejected manuscripts, the information of which was not available in the public domain. CONCLUSION: An effective editorial screening, fast-tracked editorial and peer review process and regulation on turnover time of submissions by Indian dermatology journals are imperative in improving the impact of research publication.