What procedures are involved?

We will perform several harmless tests on everyone:

1. We will complete several questionnaires with you. These will ask for basic information on your skin and eczema. We will also ask how much the eczema affects you and your entire family.
2. We will perform an examination of your skin. We will look at all of your skin and record where the eczema is and how severe it is.
3. Saliva (‘spit sample) sample or mouth swab. We will ask you to ‘spit’ into a collection tube. If you are unable to do this we will rub the inside of your cheek with a small brush. This will take about 10 seconds. This sample will be used to test your genes (DNA) – we will look at specific genes related to eczema to see if they are present.
4. Nitric Oxide testing. You will need to breathe out (blow) into a machine to assess your breathing. This will take place in the same room as the other tests.
5. Nitrogen dioxide monitoring. If you have asthma, we may ask for you to carry a small badge for two weeks to measure levels of pollution near you.
6. Skin moisture tests. We will place two probes on your skin for about 60 seconds each to assess how much moisture there is in the skin and how leaky the skin is. This tests looks at how good the skin is as a barrier.
7. Superficial skin sample. We will take samples of the very top layers of skin by placing sticky plastic discs on your forearm. These will be placed on the skin and then removed. This procedure is painless and does not leave a mark. These samples will be stored in our laboratory (Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry) for use in future research.
8. Skin swab. Using a swab, that looks like a ‘Q-tip’ we will rub your skin to look for normal bacteria found on the skin. These samples will also be stored for future research.

Special tests:

1. Blood tests (over 16 only). We may ask you to give a blood sample to be tested for cytokines, which are small proteins that are elevated in the blood stream in severe eczema.  This will involve putting a small butterfly needle into the skin at the crease of your elbow to take a tube of blood.
2. Skin biopsy (over 12 only). We may ask you to provide a sample of skin (tissue biopsy). You will only do this if you agree to it!