Subepidermal bullous disease. A correlated clinico-pathologic study of 51 cases.

The histologic features of 51 cases of subepidermal bullous disease were evaluated and correlated with the clinical features including the course of the disease and the response to therapy. There was a good clinico-pathologic correlation, 46 out of 51 cases showing concordant clinical and histologic diagnoses. We conclude that although immunofluorescence is a confirmatory procedure histologic diagnosis is still of great value, particularly in the early stages of the disease when the clinical features may not yet have evolved sufficiently to allow for a confident diagnosis.