The diagnosis of pemphigus vulgaris in the past has been based on the clinical features and the course of the disease. Recent reports have placed the microscopic findings ahead of the clinical ones in making the differential diagnosis. The object of the present report is to correlate clinical and microscopic characteristics of bullous eruptions considered to be in the pemphigus group.
A number of authors have discussed the microscopic features and have attempted to reclassify the pemphigus group. In 1943, Civatte4 stressed the difference between dermatitis herpetiformis and pemphigus vulgaris on the basis of the microscopic picture of the bulla. According to him, the bulla of dermatitis herpetiformis is a tension type bulla located between the epidermis and the cutis in which the epithelial cells at the border of the bulla are stretched but firmly attached to one another. The bulla may contain