Background: Immunofluorescence (IF) is a reliable biochemical staining technique for the detection of antibodies, which are bound to antigen in the tissue or circulating in body fluids. The relative simplicity and accuracy of the technique has made immunofluorescence an unavoidably powerful technique in the diagnosis of bullous diseases.
Objectives: To detect the pattern of direct immunofluorescence (DIF) in the diagnosis of pemphigus.
Methods: Thirty-six patients with pemphigus disease were enrolled in our study. The age of whom ranged from 21to 73 years with a mean age ± SD of 46.94±14.6 years Two skin biopsies (one from the bullous lesion and the other one from adjacent area) were taken from each patient, lesional biopsy specimens were used for histopathological examination after standard processing, while perilesional skin samples were used for performing direct immunofluorescence.
Results: DIF was positive in all patients with pemphigus vulgaris (PV), showing intraepidermal deposition of immunoglobulins and complement 3 (C3). IgG was seen in all of them (100%), while C3 was also observed in 38.4% patients, and IgM was positive in (3.8%) in a similar pattern.
Conclusion: Immunofluorescence (IF) studies are an important part of the laboratory evaluation of immunologically mediated bullous dermatoses and have become standard procedures for accurately diagnosing patients with these disorders.