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Abstract
SUMMARY
Atopic dermatitis is a chronically relapsing skin disorder of early infancy, childhood and adolescence, frequently associated with elevated serum IgE levels and a personal or family history of atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis and or asthma.
The etiology of the disease is based on multifactorial background. Eosinophiles may be of major relevance in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis as patients frequently show elevated blood eosinophilic
counts(79).
Activated eosinophils will go degranulation with release of proteins, one of the most important is eosinophilic cationic protein (ECP)
In this study we quantified serum ECP to establish whether it is increased in the patients of this series.
We tried also to evaluate the possibility that the measurement of ECP as non invasive tool could be used to assess the activity of atopic dermatitis and the effectiveness of treatment in this disease.
Twenty patients fulfilling the diagnostic criteria of atopic dermatitis following Hanifin & Rajka (7) were chosen from the attendance of outpatient clinic of the main university hospital in Alexandria served as a material for this study. Males to females ratio were 3:1.
The patients represented the three phases of the disease. Twenty five percent were infants, fifty percent were children and twenty five percent were adults.