Pemphigus in central part of Iran

Objective: to evaluate the incidence and clinical profile of pemphigus patients in yazd, a central part of iran. patients and methods: this analytic observational study was done by cross- sectional method. data were collected from the files of all newly registered patients with pemphigus at the sole dermatologic center in the city of yazd in yazd province during the period 1996-2006.the data consisted of demography, clinical features and their histopathologic findings. results: the results showed that the incidence of the disease for the overall population in yazd was 0.98/100,000. there were a total of 89 patients comprising 44.9% male and 55.1% female. male to female ratio was 1/1.23. the mean age at the diagnostic time was 44.19± 20.30 years (age range: from 5 to 105 years). skin involvement alone was seen in 22.5%, mouco-cutaneous involvement in 60.7% and mucosal involvement alone in 16.8% of patients. pemphigus vulgaris was the most common clinical subtype in 77.5% followed by pemphigus foliaceus 22.5%. conclusion: a moderately high incidence of pemphigus was found in the central part of iran as compared with that encountered in other countries. the commonest clinical subtype was pv with a 3.4-fold higher incidence than pemphigus foliaceus. it is more frequent in middle-aged people and has a female predominance.