Allergy Asthma Respir Dis AARD Allergy, Asthma & Respiratory Disease 2288-0402 2288-0410 The Korean Academy of Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Disease; The Korean Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology 10.4168/aard.2016.4.2.145 Case Report Late-onset trichloroethylene-induced hypersensitivity syndrome after intermittent exposure to low-dose trichloroethylene Lee Seung Yun 1 Oh Se Hwan 1 Choi Hyuck Jae 1 Choi Woo Young 1 Han Jee Young 2 Lee Hong-Lyeol 1 http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4306-1367 Kim Cheol-Woo 1 Department of Internal Medicine, Inha University Hospital, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, Korea. Department of Pathology, Inha University Hospital, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, Korea. Correspondence to: Cheol-Woo Kim. Department of Internal Medicine, Inha University Hospital, Inha University School of Medicine, 27 Inhang-ro, Jung-gu, Incheon 22332, Korea. Tel: +82-32-890-3495, Fax: +82-32-882-6578, cwkim1805@inha.ac.kr 03 2016 31 03 2016 4 2 145 148 21 08 2015 09 09 2015 10 09 2015 © 2016 The Korean Academy of Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Disease; The Korean Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology 2016 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Occupational exposure to trichloroethylene (TCE) can occasionally induce severe cutaneous disorders, including hypersensitivity syndrome and Stevens-Johnson syndrome. The clinical manifestation of TCE hypersensitivity syndrome is quite similar to that of drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome and includes skin lesions, hepatitis, fever, and lymphadenopathy. Almost all cases of TCE hypersensitivity syndrome developed within 2–8 weeks after the first exposure to TCE in an occupational setting. This typical course and clinical feature of hypersensitivity syndrome together with occupational history of TCE contact may lead to prompt diagnosis and treatment of this potentially fatal disease. This report describes a 32-year-old man who has been intermittently engaged in cleaning work using TCE for about 3 years, and then developed TCE hypersensitivity syndrome. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of TCE hypersensitivity syndrome with a long duration of symptom onset due to intermittent exposure to TCE. Thus, physicians should take thorough occupational history when seeing a patient with hypersensitivity syndrome has neither history of drug intake nor regular exposure to TCE.

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