Epidemiologic Study of Patients with Chronic Vesiculobullous Lesions

Abstract

Background and Aim: Vesiculobullous diseases (VBDs) are characterized by the formation of vesicles or bullae. The aim of this study was to perform an epidemiological survey on patients with chronic VBDs referred to Shiraz Dental School during 2006-2016. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, epidemiological data (age, sex, prevalence, involvement location, prescribed medication, and underlying diseases) of patients diagnosed with VBDs were collected. The relationship between the epidemiological factors and the occurrence of VBDs was analyzed. SPSS version 18 was used to analyze the data by the Chi-square test and Spearman's correlation test.Results: Totally, 120 patients were evaluated; out of which, 88.3% had pemphigus vulgaris (PV), 4.2% had bullous pemphigoid (BP), 6.8% had mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP), and 0.1% had pemphigus herpetiformis (PH). Most patients were females (68.3%) and 31.7% were males. The mean age of patients was 43.14±11.41 years. The mucosal and cutaneous involvement in PV patients was as follows: 31.13% had mucosal, 0.94% had cutaneous, 37.73% had both mucosal and cutaneous, and 30.18% had mucosal-cutaneous involvement associated with involvement of other organs. Prednisolone was the first-line treatment in all patients. There was a significant correlation between age and incidence of VBDs in patients (P=0.030). Conclusion: Our findings indicated that the epidemiological properties of VBDs in our study were similar to those in other countries. However, PV was the most common VBD followed by BP.

Ocular involvement in oral vesiculobullous diseases: A review on reported cases in the literature

“…Even though vesiculobullous disorders are generally more prevalent among females ( Maharshak and Brenner, 2002 , Rosi-Schumacher et al, 2023 ), the gender difference observed in patients with lichen planus was noticeable, with a male-to-female ratio of 1:6.25. Pemphigus vulgaris was the primary disorder in nearly half of the cases; however, the incidence and prevalence of lichen planus are much more than that of pemphigus vulgaris ( Lavaee et al, 2022 ). This may suggest that eye injury is relatively more related to pemphigus vulgaris.…”