Fig. 4.

Number (left ordinate) and percentage (right ordinate) of patients reporting itch upon: (A) sine wave stimulation of increasing duration; (B) single half sine wave pulse delivered to non-affected control skin (open columns) and in the eczema-affected skin (black columns). Inlet depicts the 2 different electrical stimulation wave forms and current intensities, set at 0.025–0.2 mA for sine wave and 0.2–1 mA for half sine wave stimuli. Note that with increasing duration of sinusoidal stimulation the number of patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) reporting itch increases up to 14 (54%) out of 26 patients. A single half sine wave pulse of 500-ms duration caused itch in 8 patients (approximately 30%) in the eczema-affected skin and in one patient in non-affected control skin.