LyralR is an important sensitizer in patients sensitive to fragrances

Abstract

Contact allergy to fragrances is a common problem world-wide. The currently used fragrance mix (FM) for patch testing has only eight constituents and does not identify all fragrance-allergic patients. As perfumes may contain 100 or more substances, the search for markers for allergy continues. The synthetic fragrance 4-(4-hydroxy-4-methylpentyl)-3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde (Lyral) was tested together with the FM and 11 other fragrance substances on consecutive patients in six European departments of dermatology. All patients were carefully questioned regarding a history of reactions to scented products in the past and were grouped into four categories: 'certain', 'probable', 'questionable' and 'none'. Lyral (5% in petrolatum) gave a positive reaction in 2.7% of 1855 patients (range 1.2-17%) and ranked next to 11.3% with FM allergy. Twenty-four patients reacted to both Lyral and FM, but 21 (1.1%) reacted positively only to Lyral. Of 124 patients with a 'certain' history, 53.2% reacted to the FM and a further 7.2% to Lyral only. If any kind of history of fragrance intolerance was given, 80% (40 of 50) of Lyral positive patients had a 'positive' history while only 58.6% (123 of 210) of FM positive patients had such a history; this difference was significant at P < 0.01. Lyral was identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in some products which had caused an allergic contact dermatitis in four typical patients who showed a patch test positive to Lyral and negative or doubtful to FM. In conclusion, we recommend the testing of 5% Lyral (in petrolatum) in patients suspected of contact dermatitis.

Allergic Contact Dermatitis from Cosmetics

“…The percentage in the studies varies from 5.3 to 14%, while our analysis showed 16.9% [7,[10][11][12][13][14]. The fragrance mix detects only 70-80% of ACD reactions to odorous substances (the other cases are revealed by testing the patients' own products; see below).…”

“…The fragrance mix detects only 70-80% of ACD reactions to odorous substances (the other cases are revealed by testing the patients' own products; see below). Over more than 25 years of scientific research, there have been numerous efforts to improve the detection of fragrances: Lyral (a synthetic perfume substance) seems to have the capacity to make a significant contribution, but it has not been tested in our series [10,15].…”

Another Look at Allergies to Fragrances: Frequencies of Sensitisation to the Fragrance Mix and Its Constituents

“…In the real world, there are hundreds of fragrances, many of them devoid of a sensitisation risk [6,41] and others with a small impact on the overall frequency of sensitisation [6]. Other fragrances have appeared on the horizon as new allergens, like lyral, citral, (dihydro)coumarin or ylang-ylang oil [6,32,[41][42][43][44], although their respective impact on fragrance allergy remains to be elucidated [41,45]. Therefore, the FM cannot be used to sensitively diagnose all cases of allergies caused by fragrances in general, but there is broad agreement that the FM is, up to now, a relatively good diagnostic tool, which, in the long run, should be complemented by other compounds [7].…”

Kontaktsensibilisierungen auf Externa

“…Lyral wird nicht nur in Parfümen, sondern auch in Aftershaves, Hand-und Bodylotionen sowie insbesondere in Deodorantien eingesetzt [7].Auch in Deutschland führte in einer an 20 Hautkliniken des Informationsverbundes dermatologischer Kliniken (IVDK) von 2000-2001 durchgeführten Multicenterstudie Lyral 5% in Vaseline in 1,9% der 3.245 epikutan getesteten Patienten zu Reaktionen,die als allergische Spättypre-aktion bewertet wurden [8]. Lyral wurde deshalb in die Standardserie der Kliniken des IVDK aufgenommen [8].…”