Serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D level in patients with pemphigus and its association with disease severity

Abstract

Vitamin D deficiency is common both in patients with pemphigus and in HCs. Patients with more severe disease (higher PAAS) are likely to have lower vitamin D levels.

Influence of cigarette smoking on pemphigus – a systematic review and pooled analysis of the literature

“…Studies also indicated that duration of smoking and number of cigarettes smoked were significantly lower in patients with pemphigus than controls and that remission may be achieved sooner in those who smoke . A generally low prevalence of smoking of 15.3–42.3% (mean 23%) was found in patients with pemphigus, but the smoking status was not further specified as current and/or former in six studies . Some investigations demonstrated no significant difference regarding the smoking status compared with non‐pemphigus subjects, in whom the prevalence of smoking was 7.1–48.5% (mean 29%) .…”

“…A total of 31 different citation hits related to the terms used in the electronic literature search were retrieved. After critical screening of titles, abstracts and full text, 13 articles with a total of 3046 patients with pemphigus, conducted in 10 countries, were suitable in this review . The characteristics of each individual study associated with cigarette smoking and pemphigus are shown in Table .…”

“…The analysed cohorts were patients with PV (24.5%) and PF (1.6%), while the rest represented partly unspecified types of pemphigus . The male/female ratio was 1 : 1.4, and the mean age and disease duration ranges were 32.3–72.1 years and 2.5 months to 8.64 years, respectively, although length of symptoms was not reported in five studies . Considering the treatment of patients, two articles reported no pharmacological intervention during the study, and six studies did not inform about or specify the drug therapy .…”

“…Three case–control studies demonstrated that the prevalence of current and former smoking in pemphigus was on average twofold below that of control subjects . In addition, pooled data analysis revealed a lower prevalence of smoking in the pemphigus group . The inverse link between smoking and pemphigus was also made by the observation of both a lesser duration of smoking and number of consumed cigarettes in patients compared with controls as well as by the finding that remission may be accomplished faster in patients who smoke …”

“…To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review on the relationship between smoking and pemphigus. Most of the analysed subjects with pemphigus were non‐smokers, with smoking being reported in a mean of about one of four patients . Three case–control studies demonstrated that the prevalence of current and former smoking in pemphigus was on average twofold below that of control subjects .…”