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Epidemiologic survey of pemphigus vulgaris with oral manifestations in northern Greece: Retrospective study of 129 patients
Author(s) -
Michailidou Evangelia Z.,
Belazi Maria A.,
Markopoulos Anastasios K.,
Tsatsos Michael I.,
Mourellou Olga N.,
Antoniades Demetrios Z.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
international journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-4632
pISSN - 0011-9059
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-4632.2006.03044.x
Subject(s) - medicine , pemphigus vulgaris , incidence (geometry) , epidemiology , retrospective cohort study , population , disease , dermatology , pediatrics , surgery , environmental health , optics , physics
Objective To evaluate the epidemiology of pemphigus vulgaris (PV) in a Greek population and to compare it with other countries. Materials and Methods A retrospective study was conducted based on the records of 129 patients (41 males and 88 females) with PV who visited the Department of the Oral Medicine and Maxillofacial Pathology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and the State Hospital for Skin and Venereal Diseases of Thessaloniki, Greece, between 1985 and 2004. A group of 73 individuals was used as controls. Results The average annual incidence was found to be eight patients per year. The male to female ratio was 1 : 2.25. The difference in the age of onset between the two genders was statistically significant in marginal levels ( P = 0.05). In addition, 86.1% of the patients showed oral lesions only, 13.3% oral and skin lesions and 1.3% manifested oral, skin, and ocular lesions. Twenty‐eight of the 88 females were in the premenopausal period‐of‐life. Additionally, 19 males were farmers who had daily contact with organophosphoric pesticides. Co‐existing pathologic conditions were present in 75 of the 129 patients, and of these 75 patients six (8%) were diabetics, 15 (20%) presented with hypertension, two (2.6%) faced problems from their thyroid gland, and 10 (13.3%) of the patients complained of allergic reactions. Conclusions The results of this study demonstrated a relatively high incidence of PV in northern Greece compared with that in other countries. The disease most frequently occured in the sixth decade‐of‐life and the majority of the patients manifested oral lesions. Further epidemiological studies are needed to elucidate whether this region is constituted from population groups with high susceptibility to PV.