Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) usually occurs in adults. There are only a few reports of large PV series concerning childhood cases. We report here five cases of PV in patients younger than 16 years. They were analyzed among 169 PV cases out of a total of 192 pemphigus patients diagnosed between 1988-2004. The ratio of childhood cases was 2.9% in our large PV series. This relatively high ratio of childhood patients suggests that PV should not be neglected in the differential diagnosis of bullous lesions in childhood. Four of the five cases were followed up between 2-4 years and all of these four cases showed at least one relapse. PV also seems to show a relapsing course in the pediatric age group like in adults.
Although significant associations between bullous pemphigoid (BP) and certain comorbidities, primarily subtypes of neurological disorders, have been reported in several populations, it has yet to be demonstrated whether a correlation exists between pre‐existing comorbidities and serum titers of anti‐BP180 and 230 immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies among BP patients. The aim of the current study is to investigate the demographic and clinical features of BP patients in a large series from Turkey, determine the prevalence of pre‐existing neurological and systemic disorders, and assess the correlation between the existence of certain comorbidities and basal serum titers of anti‐BP180 and 230 IgG autoantibodies. Thus, data from 145 BP patients diagnosed in the study's center between 1987 and 2017 were retrospectively analyzed and compared with 310 age‐ and sex‐matched control subjects. The serum titers of anti‐BP 180 and 230 IgG autoantibodies were compared between the patients with and without comorbidities and its subtypes among 55 patients with available serum basal anti‐BP levels. Twenty‐eight of the BP patients (19.3%) had already been diagnosed with at least one neurological disorder at the onset of BP. According to regression analysis, preexisting neurological disorders (p = 0.017), stroke (p = 0.017), and malignancies (p = 0.005) were found to be higher among the study's BP patients than the controls. The serum titers of anti‐BP180 and 230 that were measured at the time of diagnosis were significantly higher in patients with neurological disorders than in patients without neurological disorders (p = 0.042; p = 0.018). Among the pre‐existing comorbidities, neurological disorders, particularly stroke, and malignancies were found to be significantly connected to the occurrence of BP in the selected Turkish population. The high titers of serum anti‐BP180 and 230 IgG antibodies at the time of BP diagnoses may highlight undiagnosed pre‐existing neurological disorders by provoking suspicion.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.