A Spectrophotometric Test in Attempts to Differentiate Pemphigus Serum from That of Other Bullous Diseases

Abstract

Since the problem of clinical differentiation between pemphigus and other bullous diseases (dermatitis herpetiformis, erythema multiforme bullosum) may, at times, be extremely difficult, many attempts have been made to develop laboratory procedures which might differentiate between these two groups. The Pels and Macht Test (1), the complement fixation test of Urbach and Brandt (2), the Grace neutralization test of pemphigus antibodies (3) and the Welsh cataphoretic Test (4) are a few of the procedures devised for this purpose. It is known that certain chemical changes may be found in the sera of patients with pemphigus (shift of the Na and K ions, decrease in Ca and Cl ions, a reverse A/G ratio, etc.) and it has also been repeatedly affirmed that a “toxic factor” is present in the circulating blood (virus, toxins from focal infections, etc.). (Urbach (13), Dostrovsky et al. (5), Grace and Suskind (6), Waelsch (7), Radaeli (11). It was believed, therefore, that serums from patients with pemphigus might be altered by the above factors and that these alterations would produce changes in the light absorption of the visual spectrum when a diluted serum was treated with a dye. The purpose of this report is to describe the technic employed and the results obtained.