The HLA-B12 antigen is significantly increased in Caucasian patients with Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) with ocular complications, while HLA-A*0206 is strongly associated with Japanese patients with SJS/toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) with ocular complications. There are strong ethnic differences in the association between HLA and SJS/TEN. Regarding the association between HLA and drug-induced severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCAR), including SJS and TEN, the strong allopurinol-specific association between HLA-B*5801 and allopurinol-induced SCAR may be a universal phenomenon, since it has been identified in all Han Chinese, Caucasian and Japanese patients. In contrast, the carbamazepine-specific association between HLA-B*1502 and carbamazepine-induced SJS may be specific to certain ethnic groups, as it has been identified in Han Chinese but not in Caucasian and Japanese patients. Dermatologists have reported that allopurinol and anticonvulsant drugs such as carbamazepine are commonly associated with SJS/TEN, while many of the author's patients developed SJS after receiving treatment for the common cold with antibiotics, cold remedies and/or non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). This article posits that the SJS/TEN patients seen by dermatologists are not always the same as the SJS/TEN patients consulting opthalmologists.
KeywordsStevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS), toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), ocular surface complications, human leukocyte antigen (HLA), ethnic differences, severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCAR), drug, carbamazepine, allopurinol In contrast, dermatologists claimed that more than 100 drugs were involved in eliciting SJS and its severe variant, toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). 4 They cited life-threatening severe adverse drug reactions characterised by high fever, rapidly developing blistering exanthema of macules and target-like lesions accompanied by mucosal involvement and skin detachment.
4,5Formerly, erythema multiforme (EM), SJS and TEN were accepted as being part of a single EM spectrum; however, a retrospective analysis of the type and distribution of the skin lesions and the extent of epidermal detachment identified EM major and SJS/TEN as two distinct clinical entities that differed with respect to their histopathological changes and aetiology. 6 The annual incidence of SJS and TEN has been estimated as 0.4 to one and one to six cases per million persons, respectively; 6,7 the reported mortality rate is 3 and 27%, respectively. 8 Although rare, these reactions carry high morbidity and mortality rates and often result in severe and definitive sequelae such as vision loss. The pathobiological mechanisms underlying the onset of SJS/TEN have not been fully established. The extreme rarity of cutaneous and ocular surface reactions to drug therapies led us to suspect individual susceptibility.In the acute stage, SJS/TEN patients manifest severe conjunctivitis and corneal/conjunctival epithelial defects with vesiculobullous skin lesions. In the chronic stage, ocular surf...