Linear IgA bullous dermatosis (LABD) is an autoimmune disease affecting children or adults that leads to subepithelial vesiculobullous lesions on the skin and/or mucosa. Due to the histologic and clinical appearance of the disease with tense and pruritic blisters, direct immunofluorescence is required for diagnosis which features the characteristic linear deposition of IgA autoantibodies along the basement membrane zone. LABD can be idiopathic, drug-induced, or associated with systemic disease such as inflammatory bowel disease. Many drugs have been implicated such as antibiotics, anti-hypertensives, antiepileptics, analgesics, and immunosuppressive medications. Treatment of LABD centers on discontinuation of the offending drug if applicable as well as pharmacotherapy with dapsone as the first-line treatment. Adjunctive therapy with sulphonamides, systemic corticosteroids, cyclosporine, colchicine, intravenous immunoglobulins, tetracyclines, erythromycin, and dicloxacillin have also shown benefit. We report a case of a young adult patient who developed LABD with background of recent initiation of treatment with imipramine and newly diagnosed ulcerative colitis.
Immunoglobulin A (IgA) vasculitis is an autoimmune disease associated with bacterial and viral infections that typically presents with palpable purpura, arthralgia, abdominal pain, and renal involvement. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection has been found to trigger numerous autoimmune and rheumatologic conditions, including IgA vasculitis. We report a patient who had a COVID-19 infection and then two weeks later developed severe abdominal pain, nausea, emesis, diarrhea, hematochezia, palpable purpura, and arthralgia. Skin biopsy revealed deposition of IgA and C3 complement granular deposition with fibrinogen deposition in superficial dermal vessel walls consistent with IgA vasculitis. The patient was treated with intravenous methylprednisolone followed by oral prednisone with significant improvement and no relapse after tapering and discontinuing steroids in six weeks. This case of biopsy-proven IgA vasculitis precipitated by active COVID-19 infection demonstrates the ability of COVID-19 infection to induce IgA vasculitis and its response to corticosteroid treatment.
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