Is the incidence of pemphigoid really increasing?

doi:10.1136/bmj.a1138

Published 6 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1138
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1138

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Bullous pemphigoid

Is the incidence of pemphigoid really increasing?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

We found the data reported by Langan et al on the apparent increasingincidence of pemphigoid striking.¹

It might reasonably be expected that a fivefold increase inincidence of pemphigoid would be apparent to physicians caringfor patients with the disorder. Blistering disorders are perhapsunusual among skin conditions in that they are nearly alwaysreported to dermatologists, and specialised testing is requiredto establish the diagnosis. A straw poll among dermatologicalcolleagues last week did not support the view that pemphigoidhad been seen more often, and to examine this further we reviewedthe incidence of positive tissue diagnoses of pemphigoid inour laboratory over the period 1994-2004. Such diagnostic biopsiestend to be taken only once, and generally at the onset of thedisease. They therefore represent a surrogate marker of incidenceof the condition.

Currently we receive over 2000 samples annually, and in theperiod 1994-2003 (for . . . [Full text of this article]

Richard W Groves, head, clinical immunodermatology¹, Balbir Bhogal, chief biomedical scientist¹, Kathy Taghipour, research fellow¹, Paola Caposciutti, research fellow¹, Monika Saha, research fellow¹

¹ St John’s Institute of Dermatology, St Thomas’ Hospital, London SE1 7EH

richard.groves@kcl.ac.uk

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Bullous pemphigoid and pemphigus vulgaris—incidence and mortality in the UK: population based cohort study: S M Langan, L Smeeth, R Hubbard, K M Fleming, C J P Smith, and J West
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