An 87-year-old woman was admitted with a more than 6month history of an exacerbation of bullae. Edematous erythema and bullae were scattered throughout her extremities and trunk (Picture 1A). Serum autoantibodies against the BP-180 antigen were found. Histopathology confirmed a diagnosis of bullous pemphigoid (Picture 1B). She developed hematemesis on the fourth day after admission. Upper endos...

Volume 87, Number 9 www.aafp.org/afp American Family Physician 645 A 64-year-old man presented with lesions on the right side of his scrotum (Figure 1); they had been present for nearly 20 years. The patient reported no pain, oozing, or itching, and he had no history of trauma, injury, radiotherapy, surgery, or venereal infection. Examination revealed multiple f luidfilled, translucent vesicles...

Background: In addition to humoral immunity associated with anti-desmoglein antibodies, cellular immunity and mediators including cytokines are involved in the pathogenesis of pemphigus vulgaris. In this study we evaluated the level of IL-2, IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-4, and IL-10 in the sera of patients with pemphigus vulgaris before and after treatment.Methods: A total number of 71 new patients with pe...

Background: Paederus dermatitis, an acute erythemato-vesiculo-bullous dermatitis contracted through contact with the secretions of the Paederus species, is frequently seen among the people living in the south-west part of our country during spring and early summer months. Objective: This study was conducted to elucidate the responsible arthropod in Khuzestan province and to study the clinical s...

With the aid of the electron microscope, the ultrastructural changes associated with bullous keratopathy were studied in corneal specimens from a patient with congenital hereditary corneal dystrophy and from one with congenital glaucoma. Within the subepithelial bullae of both specimens, infoldings of the basal plasma membrane of the basal epithelial cells could be observed to contain basement-...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Spontaneous pneumothorax is common between young, thin people, usually without previous history of any respiratory disease or symptom. Of note, there has been not observed any other characteristics or findings from thorax imaging (Rx and thorax computed tomography-CT) in these people, in exception of blebs or bullae in upper lobes of the lungs. MATERIALS AND METHODS ...

Pulmonary bullae occur as insulated abnormalities in approximate normal lung tissue or in the presence of emphysema. The steady expansion of lung bulla is common; however, its mechanism is still unclear, but can impulse life threatening conditions that requires emergent surgical intervention. Spontaneous complete or partial resolution also known as “autobullectomy” of giant pulmonary bullae is ...

Aeromonas hydrophila, an anaerobic gram-negative bacillus, can cause severe infections in immune-compromised patients. We present a 45-year-old cirrhotic man who suffered from hematemesis and received emergency endoscopic injection sclerotherapy (EIS) for gastric variceal bleeding. Twenty-one hours after EIS, painful swelling of the bilateral lower extremities and fever occurred. Severe soft-ti...

A 43-year-old black man had an 18-year history of apical lung cystic-bullous disease. Following two episodes of spontaneous pneumothorax and two instances of thoracotomy for bullectomy and pleural abrasion, he was found to have an intermediate AAT deficiency with an MZ phenotype. It is believed that this is the first case of localized bullous lung disease to be reported in association with any ...