Patch testing with hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde (HICC) - a multicentre study of the Swedish Contact Dermatitis Research Group.

BACKGROUND

In 2014, the fragrance hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde (HICC) was excluded from the Swedish baseline series.

OBJECTIVES

To study (i) whether fragrance mix (FM) II with 5% HICC detects more positive reactions than usual FM II with 2.5% HICC, and (ii) the reproducibility of patch testing with HICC.

METHODS

Two thousand one hundred and eighteen dermatitis patients at five Swedish dermatology departments were consecutively tested with FM II 14% pet., FM II 16.5% pet., and duplicate preparations of HICC 5% pet.

RESULTS

Of the patients, 3.2% reacted to FM II 14%, and 1.5% reacted to HICC. Separate testing with HICC detected 0.3% reactions without concomitant reactivity to FM II. FM II with 5% HICC did not give rise to more irritant reactions or signs of active sensitization than FM II with 2.5% HICC. Patch testing with duplicate applications of HICC increased the overall prevalence of HICC contact allergy to 1.9%.

CONCLUSION

FM II with 5% HICC does not detect more positive reactions than FM II with 2.5% HICC. Separate testing with HICC does not detect a sufficient proportion of patients who react only to HICC, without concomitant reactions to FM II, to warrant its inclusion in a baseline series.