Quantitation of contact allergy in guinea pigs by measuring changes in skin blood flow and skin fold thickness.

Skin blood flow determined by laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) and skin fold thickness (SFT) have been used to quantitate allergic contact dermatitis in the guinea pig maximization test (GPMT) using chlorocresol as the allergen. The closed patch test procedure itself influenced both LDF and SFT measurements when determined in 12 sham-treated guinea pigs. The LDF was maximal at 24 hours and the SFT at 48 hours. Before correlating the quantitative measurements with the conventional visual scoring in test and control animals the value from a nearby control site was subtracted from the test site values. The correlations were highly significant (p less than 0.001-0.05) indicating that the quantitative methods were useful supplements to the visual scoring as a measure of interobserver and interlaboratory differences.