Background: Because Myroxylon pereirae (MP), or balsam of Peru, is nowadays almost not used "as such," and fragrance mix 1 (FM1) apparently is more sensitive in detecting fragrance allergy, the usefulness of testing MP in baseline series was recently questioned.
Objectives: Identification of the number of clinically relevant patch test reactions to MP not detected by FM1.
Methods: Retrospective analysis of 12 030 patients patch tested with MP and FM1 for contact dermatitis between January 2018 and December 2019 in 13 Italian dermatology clinics.
Results: Four hundred thirty-nine patients (3.6%) had a positive patch test reaction to MP; 437 (3.6%) had a positive patch test reaction to FM1. Positive reactions to both MP and FM1 were observed in 119 subjects (1.0%), 310 (2.6%) reacted to MP only, 304 (2.5%) to FM1 only, 5 to MP and sorbitan sesquioleate (SSO), 9 to FM1 and SSO, and 5 to MP, FM1, and SSO. Single sensitizations were clinically relevant in 75.2% of cases for MP (62.9% current, 12.3% past) and 76.3% for FM1 (70.1% current, 6.2% past).
Conclusions: Based on our results, MP appears to be still worth testing along with FM1 in baseline series, because it allows detection of a remarkable number of fragrance allergies, often relevant, which would be otherwise missed.
Keywords: Myroxylon pereirae; balsam of Peru; fragrance allergy; fragrance mix 1; patch test.
© 2021 The Authors. Contact Dermatitis published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.