Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Dermatology: Blistering Diseases

73 year old woman comes to clinic with intensely pruritic blistering lesions on the legs, and chest.  The lesions are 1.5 cm in diameter with a red base.  She has no previous history of these lesions.



An excisional biopsy of one of the lesions indicates bullous phemphigoid as a possible diagnosis.

What do you do now?
1.  Treat with steroids
2. Treat with antibiotics
3. Biopsy normal skin
4. Order a sedimentation rate



Answer:  Biopsy normal skin.  The diagnosis of bullous phemphigoid is made with direct immunofluorescence studies of normal perilesional skin.  The sample is generally sent in formalin, but you should ask your pathology department how they would prefer the sample.

Bullous phemphigoid is a chronic autoimmune skin disorder, affecting older people generally, with a duration of illness of  1 to 5 years.  Occasionally (15-20%), there is mucosal involvement, and possibly ocular involvment. 

Treatment includes topical and/or systemic steroids and possibly immunosuppressives or other anti-inflammatories.

Referral should be made to dermatology for skin lesions, ENT and a dentist for mucosal lesions and an ophthamologist for eye involvement and those requiring prolonged high-dose steroids.

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