Autoimmune Skin Disease Is Associated with Neurologic Disease

Individuals with the autoimmune skin disease bullous pemphigoid appear more likely to have a diagnosis of neurologic disease, such as dementia and cerebrovascular disease, according to a study reported on in the November issue of Archives of Dermatology. Researchers at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals, Oxford, England, assessed 90 consecutive patients with bullous pemphigoid and 141 controls without the condition. Among patients with bullous pemphigoid, 42 (46 percent) had at least one neurologic disease, compared with 16 controls (11 percent). Four major neurologic diseases were observed: cerebrovascular disease, dementia, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy. However, only rates of cerebrovascular disease and dementia were significantly greater among patients than among controls. And, of the patients with accurate information about the timing of their diagnoses, bullous pemphigoid was diagnosed after neurologic disease in most (72 percent), with a median time of 5.5 years between diagnoses.