Background: The role of bacterial infections in hand eczema (HE) remains to be assessed.
Objectives: To determine the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus in patients with HE compared with controls, and to relate presence of S. aureus, subtypes and toxin production to severity of HE.
Methods: Bacterial swabs were taken at three different visits from the hand and nose in 50 patients with HE and 50 controls. Staphylococcus aureus was subtyped by spa typing and assigned to clonal complexes (CCs), and isolates were tested for exotoxin-producing S. aureus strains. The Hand Eczema Severity Index was used for severity assessment.
Results: Staphylococcus aureus was found on the hands in 24 patients with HE and four controls (P < 0.001), and presence of S. aureus was found to be related to increased severity of the eczema (P < 0.001). Patients carried identical S. aureus types on the hands and in the nose in all cases, and between visits in 90% of cases. Ten different CC types were identified, no association with severity was found, and toxin-producing strains were not found more frequently in patients with HE than in controls.
Conclusions: Staphylococcus aureus was present on hands in almost half of all patients with HE, and was significantly related to severity of the disease. This association indicates that S. aureus could be an important cofactor for persistence of HE.