Dermatitis herpetiformis in Japan: an update.
BACKGROUND
Although dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) is a relatively common disease in Caucasian populations, it is rare in Asian populations including the Japanese. We encountered a Japanese case of DH which showed granular IgA and C3 deposits in the papillary dermis and which was associated with gluten-sensitive enteropathy but no HLA-B8/DR3/DQ2.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to describe the characteristics of Japanese DH cases, since most of them have been reported in Japanese language and dermatologists outside Japan are not familiar with the characteristics of Japanese DH.


METHODS
We have reviewed all 34 Japanese DH cases reported previously.


RESULTS
We found several features of Japanese DH compared with Caucasian DH, such as a high frequency of the fibrillar pattern, rarity of gluten-sensitive enteropathy and an absence of the HLA-B8/DR3/DQ2 haplotype.


CONCLUSIONS
There might be significant differences in pathophysiology between Caucasian and Japanese DH cases.
Shibahara
M
M
Department of Dermatology, Tokyo Kousei-Nenkin Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
Nanko
H
H
Shimizu
M
M
Kanda
N
N
Kubo
M
M
Ikeda
M
M
Matsumoto
M
M
Nonaka
S
S
Shimizu
H
H
D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D003622:Dapsone / Q000008:administration & dosage; D003874:Dermatitis Herpetiformis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D019085:Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Direct; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
D003622:Dapsone