Bullous Pemphigoid and Intravenous Gammaglobulin

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Abstract
To the editor: Bullous pemphigoid, a severe autoimmune blistering disease, is usually treated with high doses of corticosteroids, immunosuppressive drugs, or plasma exchange (1). Because high-dose intravenous gammaglobulin can alleviate various antibody-mediated diseases (2-5) we decided to try gammaglobulin in patients with bullous pemphigoid. Eleven patients with biopsy-proven bullous pemphigoid were studied. They were seven men and four women aged 64 to 82 years (mean, 70). All had IgG linear deposits along the basement membrane zone in perilesional skin, and six had serum antiepidermal antibodies (by indirect immunofluorescence). Nine patients received 0.4 g/kg body weight · d of intravenous polyvalent