Pemphigus Improving with Gluten-free Diet

Abstract

Sir, Serum IgA class anti-endomysial antibodies (EMA) are markers of coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) and are useful in monitoring compliance to diet. Their overall sensitivity for the diagnosis of DH is about 80% and their specificity around 96% (1). As anti-gliadin antibodies (AGA) have already been reported in pemphigus (2, 3), the presence of AGA in another patient with pemphigus may not surprise, but the finding of IgA-EMA in yet another, and the response of both patients to a gluten-free diet treatment are worthy of attention.