title: Mortality rate in bullous pemphigoid: a retrospective monocentric cohort study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is the most common autoimmune blistering skin disease and is associated with an increased mortality. The end points of our study were to evaluate the mortality rate in a retrospective cohort of BP patients followed up to 5 years after the diagnosis and to determine prognostics factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  All new cases of BP diagnosed between 1990 and 2003 in the University Hospital of Geneva were retrospectively collected. 60 patients were included, 47 (88.6%) of whom were treated with a combination of corticosteroids and chlorambucil.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 1-year, 2-year and 5-year probabilities of death were 26.7, 37.1 and 60.8%, respectively. Old age, dementia and use of chlorambucil at initial doses of 6 mg/day, but not at lower doses, were associated with poor prognosis in multivariate analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study confirms that BP is associated with a high mortality. The observed mortality rates are however higher than those of previous studies, which is probably related to the inclusion of more debilitated patients.
authors.affiliation: Service de Dermatologie, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland. begonia.cortes @ hcuge.ch
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cortés
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Khelifa
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Clivaz
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cazzaniga
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Saurat
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Naldi
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Borradori
mesh_terms: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018906:Antineoplastic Agents, Alkylating / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002423:Cause of Death; D002699:Chlorambucil / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003704:Dementia / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010391:Pemphigoid, Bullous / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones; D018906:Antineoplastic Agents, Alkylating; D002699:Chlorambucil