value of immunohistochemistry in the diagnosis of epidermolysis bullosa

ABSTRACT

Epidermolysis bullosa [EB] constitute a group of inherited skin disorders unified by the common link of blisters that develop at sites of pressures, rubbing or trauma at or soon after birth. Based on electron microscopic examination to determine the level of skin cleavage, EB has been broadly divided into three categories. our study intends to examine the value of immunohistochemical staining in subclassifying EB into its major forms. tissue sections of paraffin embedded skin biopsy of EB cases are immunolabelled for collagen IV and cytokeratin to determine the line of cleavage and the location of bullous formation. Our study demonstrated that immunohistochemistry is successful in classifying 86% of EB cases, the failure in one case of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa was due to fault of cytokeratin staining. immunohistochemical staining on routinely processed specimens could be useful in EB classification however it still cannot fully replace electron microscopic examination