PEDIATRICS Vol. 59 No. 6 June 1977, pp. 945-948
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hertz, K. C.
Right arrow Articles by Aaronson, C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hertz, K. C.
Right arrow Articles by Aaronson, C.

Juvenile Dermatitis Herpetiformis: An Immunologically Proven Case

Kenneth C. Hertz M.D.1, Stephen I. Katz M.D., Ph.D.1, and Charles Aaronson M.D.2

1 Dermatology Branch, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
2 Fairfax Hospital, Fairfax, Virginia

Subepidermal blistering diseases of childhood have, in the past, been thought to represent cases of juvenile dermatitis herpetiformis, bullous pemphigoid, or benign chronic bullous dermatosis of childhood. While the small-blister variety closely resembles adult-type dermatitis herpetiformis, the large-blister, or bullous, variety has clinical and histologic resemblances to bullous pemphigoid. The patient presented in this report clearly fits previous descriptions of the large-blister type of juvenile dermatitis herpetiformis, bullous pemphigoid, or benign chronic bullous dermatosis of childhood both clinically and histologically, while his therapeutic response to dapsone and the presence of in vivo bound IgA at the basement membrane of normal and perilesional skin are highly characteristic of the adult type of dermatitis herpetiformis. Immunofluorescent studies of similar cases reported in the literature, however, have shown variable results, thus obscuring their classification. Though the proper place of all such cases in the nosology of blistering diseases is not yet clear, at least some of them closely resemble adult-type dermatitis herpetiformis by two important criteria-immunologic and therapeutic.