REVIEW  PEMPHIGUS 

Italian Journal of Dermatology and Venereology 2021 April;156(2):147-50

DOI: 10.23736/S2784-8671.21.06678-5

Copyright © 2021 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Beyond the skin: disease parameters in pemphigus

Giacomo VITI ¹ ✉, Chiara FORCELLA ², Claudio FELICIANI ³, Dedee F. MURRELL ⁴

¹ Unit of Dermatology, Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Philipps University, Marburg, Germany; ² IRCCS A. Gemelli University Polyclinic Foundation, Sacred Heart Catholic University, Rome, Italy; ³ Section of Dermatology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Parma, Parma, Italy; ⁴ Department of Dermatology, St George Hospital, University of NSW, Sydney, Australia

Pemphigus represents a group of rare autoimmune bullous diseases that affect the skin and mucous membranes. This group has a chronic course leading to high morbidity and mortality. Because of the painful chronic-recurring blisters and/or erosions on skin and mucosa, pemphigus can impair quality of life (QOL). Therapeutic modalities, anxiety and depression can also have an additional negative impact in the QOL of the pemphigus patients. Since the nature and course of the pathology and the fact that pemphigus worsens the quality of life of affected patients, scoring systems to objectively evaluate the clinical activity of the disease and to correlate that with the QOL are needed. Nowadays the most used global scales to assess the clinical activity of pemphigus are the Autoimmune Bullous Skin Disorder Intensity Score (ABSIS), the Pemphigus Disease Area Index (PDAI) and the Pemphigus Visual Activity Scale (PVAS). To evaluate the patient’s generic QOL the most used score is the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), but all the sponsered clinical trials in pemphigus are using ABQOL this rather than DLQI.

KEY WORDS: Pemphigus; Quality of life; Review