Clinical and Epidemiological Studies of Patients with Autoimmune Bullous Diseases

Lee, Joung Sun; Yun, Sook Jung; Kim, Seong Jin; Won, Young Ho; Lee, Seung Chul; Lee, Jee Bum

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Autoimmune bullous diseases (ABDs) are a rare significant group of dermatoses that pose great challenges to the dermatologist. So far, few epidemiological surveys for the whole spectrum of ABDs have been completed in Korea, though many epidemiological survey have focused on single ABDs.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence and clinical findings of patients in the Chonnam Province of Korea with ABDs over a 5 year period.
METHODS
A retrospective analysis was conducted on 52 ABDs patients from 2002 to 2006. ABDs were diagnosed chiefly by histopathologic findings, immunofluoresence (IF), and immunoblotting with epidermal and dermal human foreskin extract. For the exact diagnosis of ABDs, several additional diagnostic methods such as indirect IF with salt-split normal skin, immunoblotting (IB) with normal keratinocyte cells, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with recombinant proteins, immunoprecipitaion (IP) were also performed.
RESULTS
Out of 52 patients diagnosed with ABDs during the study period, pemphigus vulgaris was observed to be the commonest ABD (38.5%) followed by bullous pemphigoid (29.8%), pemphigus foliaceus (17.8%), epidermolysis bullosa acquisita (5.8%), paraneoplastic pemphigus, pemphigoid gestationis (3.8%), and linear IgA bullous dermatoses (1.9%).
CONCLUSION
This study showed the incidence of the ABDs in Chonnam-Gwangju province area were very low (52 cases over 5 years) and was stationary over this period. Pemphigus vulgaris and bullous pemphigoid were common diseases among many ABDs. The incidence of ABDs in Korea as a whole needs to be investigated.