Contact allergy to gold after systemic administration of gold for rheumatoid arthritis.

A patient with seropositive, nodular rheumatoid arthritis (RA) developed contact allergy to gold jewellery following a severe skin rash which occurred after 13 weeks of treatment with sodium aurothiomalate. Patch testing confirmed that the contact allergy was due to gold. This is the first proved case of contact allergy to gold or any other compound initiated by systemic administration of the allergen.