Susceptibility to cumulative and acute irritant dermatitis. An experimental approach in human volunteers.

Reactivity to repeated daily sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) applications and patch test reactivity to SLS was studied in 23 females. Skin changes were quantified by transepidermal water loss (TEWL), dielectric water content (DEWC), laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) and visual scoring (VS). Dermatologic histories (HS) and susceptibility to sunburn (ST) were obtained and clinical skin dryness evaluated (DS). Great interindividual variation occurred in the degrees of changes in the biophysical parameters measured: the variation was most apparent in TEWL. The subjects with HS 1 or more developed greatest TEWL increase after open SLS applications (p less than 0.05). DS showed poor correlation with SLS reactivity and only minor DEWC alterations were seen. ST showed some non-significant correlation with erythema reactivity in the patch test.