Santucci B, Cannistraci C, Cristaudo A, Camera E, Picardo M
San Gallicano Institute, Roma, Italy.
Contact Dermatitis. 1998 Jun;38(6):325-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0536.1998.tb05767.x.
Contact allergy to thimerosal (TH) has not been considered a marker for mercury allergy, since there is a low degree of cross-sensitivity to inorganic as well as to organic mercury salts. 40 subjects, who previously gave a positive patch test reaction only to thimerosal 0.1% pet. (Hermal), when simultaneously repatch-tested to solutions containing TH, mersalyl acid, p-amino-phenylmercuric acid, mercuric acetate and thiosalicylic acid, respectively, gave positive reactions only to TH. 36 out of 40 subjects were divided into 2 groups of 18 subjects and simultaneously repatch-tested to solutions containing TH, methylmercury chloride (MeHgCl), thiosalicylic acid, and, ethylmercury chloride (EtHgCl), respectively. EtHgCl was tested in the 1st group at 0.031% and in the 2nd group at 0.015%. The results showed that all subjects gave concomitant positive reactions to TH, EtHgCl and MeHgCl. EtHgCl 0.031% gave a higher number of reactions than EtHgCl 0.015%, underlining the rôle of the solvent in these reactions. Patch test results in 300 consecutive patients to a standard series, to which MeHgCl was added, showed that MeHgCl and TH were never able to give isolated positive reactions, and that the concomitant positive reactions occurred in only 3.6% of subjects. In conclusion, our data seem to suggest that the positive reactions to TH found in our patients were due to EtHgCl, and that the structural similarities with MeHgCl were so close that the skin reacted against each as if they were identical.
硫柳汞（TH）接触性过敏尚未被视为汞过敏的标志物，因为对无机汞盐和有机汞盐的交叉敏感性较低。40名受试者之前仅对0.1%硫柳汞凡士林（Hermal）贴片试验呈阳性反应，当分别对含有TH、汞撒利酸、对氨基苯基汞酸、醋酸汞和硫代水杨酸的溶液进行再次贴片试验时，仅对TH呈阳性反应。40名受试者中的36名被分为两组，每组18名，分别对含有TH、氯化甲基汞（MeHgCl）、硫代水杨酸和氯化乙基汞（EtHgCl）的溶液进行再次贴片试验。EtHgCl在第一组中的测试浓度为0.031%，在第二组中的测试浓度为0.015%。结果显示，所有受试者对TH、EtHgCl和MeHgCl均同时呈阳性反应。0.031%的EtHgCl引起的反应比0.015%的EtHgCl更多，这突出了溶剂在这些反应中的作用。对连续300名患者进行标准系列贴片试验，其中添加了MeHgCl，结果显示MeHgCl和TH从未出现过单独的阳性反应，同时呈阳性反应的受试者仅占3.6%。总之，我们的数据似乎表明，我们的患者中对TH的阳性反应是由EtHgCl引起的，并且与MeHgCl的结构相似性非常接近，以至于皮肤对它们的反应就好像它们是相同的一样。
