Bullous pemphigoid: a retrospective analysis of 45 cases

Resumen

Introduction: Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune disease that most frequently affects older people.
Objectives: To identify the age of onset, sex and clinical variants of BP. Establish associations with other diseases, therapeutic response and compare the results with published statistics.
Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective descriptive analysis of 45 patients with BP diagnosis evaluated at Hospital Policlinico Bancario between August 1995 and August 2010. The database was obtained from histologic records and their corresponding medical histories.
Results: 45 patients were recorded: 25 (55.5%) female and 20 (44.4%) male. The mean age at diagnosis was 75.9 years. Clinical variants: 35 patients (77.7%) classical; 5 (11.1%) localized; 1 (2.2%) vesicular; 2 (4.4%) nodular. Association with diabetes, 15 patients (33.3%); hypertension, 29 (64.4%); other systemic diseases, 19 (42.2%);
dermatological diseases, 7 (15.5%). The therapeutic response was good.
Conclusions: The average age at diagnosis was advanced. We found no marked difference in gender distribution. The typical form of  presentation predominated over other clinical variants. The association with systemic diseases could have been due to the fact that these pathologies occur more frequently in the same age group.
Psoriasis was the most frequent skin disease association. The therapeutic response was highly satisfactory. In general our data are similar to published statistics

(Dermatol. Argent., 2011, 17(5): 387-395).

Keywords: bullous pemphigoid, bullous disease, diabetes, psoriasis