SITE TO SITE VARIATION IN THE SOAP CHAMBER TEST

This investigation was conducted to examine the contribution of intrasite variation on the volar forearm to the overall variation in irritation under the conditions of a soap chamber test. Six sites on each forearm of human volunteers were patched with an eight percent aqueous solution of a commercial bar soap, known to be moderately irritating. Clinical evaluations of the sites were made independently by two judges twenty-four hours after the first patch application and six hours following applications conducted over the next four consecutive days. Site to site variability was estimated to be only 3.2% of the total variance component. It is suggested that as with any biologic assay, this variance can be reduced by an increase in the number of panelists.