PHYSIOLOGIC STUDIES IN ATOPIC DERMATITIS (DISSEMINATED NEURODERMATITIS)

Abstract

CLINICAL and experimental data are available attesting to the validity of various etiologic concepts of atopic dermatitis, ranging from the pure "allergic" to the pure "psychosomatic."¹Additional factors such as skin warmth and flare, the sweat retention syndrome, the dry skin component, and the general cutaneous vasospasm, as manifested by pallor and white dermographia, are conditions which are significant in the understanding of the disease. The present series of physiologic studies is being undertaken in an attempt to better understand the etiologic mechanisms involved in the production of this syndrome. This report will deal with one investigation of the cutaneous vasomotor and sweat gland activity in patients with atopic dermatitis. It was undertaken in an attempt to understand the general cutaneous vasospasm as manifested by general pallor as well as the white dermographia ("white line") that results from firm stroking of the skin with a pointed (blunt) instrument. When the skin of the normal person is firmly stroked with