Immediate and delayed allergy to nickel with contact urticaria, rhinitis, asthma and contact dermatitis

Abstract

A 27-year-old woman had for 2 years performed manual grinding of metal castings that contained nickel. She had previously had allergic contact dermatitis from nickel but started to get contact urticaria, rhinitis and asthmatic attacks at work. The symptoms disappeared at weekends and on holiday. Scratch chamber tests, open tests, specific IgE determinations (RAST), and RAST-inhibition test indicated that she had developed an IgE-mediated allergy to nickel; the bronchial provocation reaction with NiSO4 was, however, a late one. Patch tests confirmed her allergic contact dermatitis to be caused by nickel. This is the first patient, to the best of our knowledge, reported to have developed allergic contact dermatitis, allergic contact urticaria, rhinitis and asthma from nickel.