Bullous pemphigoid presenting as exfoliative erythroderma.

Abstract

Several unusual clinical presentations of bullous pemphigoid have been described such as localized, vesicular, vegetating, nodular, and sine bulla pemphigoid. Patients with erythroderma who fulfill diagnostic criteria for bullous pemphigoid and in whom bullae develop have been reported. We describe a patient with exfoliative erythroderma without any blistering in whom a diagnosis of bullous pemphigoid was based on examination of a biopsy specimen. Circulating antibodies to the basement membrane zone, with an epidermal pattern on salt split skin, and the presence of eosinophilic spongiosis in the skin biopsy specimen supported the diagnosis.