Bullous pemphigoid in India: Review of cases registered in an autoimmune bullous disease clinic

Background: Information on bullous pemphigoid in an Indian context is scarce. Aim: To report clinico-demographic profile, associated comorbidities and prescription pattern of bullous pemphigoid patients in India. Methods: This was a retrospective study, where past records of all bullous pemphigoid patients diagnosed and treated between November 2013 and October 2019 were accessed and analysed. Patients having a compatible clinical presentation with either histopathological and/or direct immunofluorescence evidence of bullous pemphigoid were included. Results: There were 96 bullous pemphigoid patients, with a male: female ratio of 1.6:1. The mean age at diagnosis was 62.5 ± 2.2 years, with mean duration of illness 27.5 ± 4.5 months before presentation. Comorbidities were present in 80 (83%) patients, with type 2 diabetes mellitus (38.5%), hypertension (36.4%) and neurological illness (16.7%) being the commonest ones. Clinically, blisters were the predominant presentation in 81 (84.4%) patients. The majority (87.5%) of patients showed a predominant eosinophilic infiltrate on histopathology. Direct immunofluorescence revealed immunoglobulin G deposits with complement C3 in 77 (80.2%) cases. The majority of patients (77.1%) were treated with oral prednisolone, either alone (11.5%) or in combination (65.6%) with other topical and systemic agents. Topical steroids were used in 29.1%, azathioprine in 28%, dapsone in 16.7% and omalizumab in 6.2% of patients. Limitations: The study is retrospective. Immunofluorescence on salt split skin, direct immunofluorescence serration pattern analysis, and immunoblotting were not performed. Hence, there is a possibility that a few included cases were suffering from other subepidermal autoimmune bullous diseases like epidermolysis bullosa acquisita or anti-p200 pemphigoid. Conclusion: Bullous pemphigoid patients in this study had a younger age of onset and showed male preponderance. Comorbidities like type 2 diabetes, hypertension and neurological disorders were freq

Keywords

Bullous pemphigoid, India, demography, clinical features, comorbidities

Citation

De, Dipankar
Kaushik, Akanksha
Handa, Sanjeev
Mahajan, Rahul
Chatterjee, Debajyoti
Saikia, Biman
Saikia, Uma Nahar
Radotra, Bishan Dass
Minz, Ranjana W. Bullous pemphigoid in India: Review of cases registered in an autoimmune bullous disease clinic. Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology. 2023 Aug; 89(4): 553-557

URI

https://imsear.searo.who.int/handle/123456789/223158

Collections

Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology

Full item page