The Histopathological Diagnosis of Autoimmune Bullous Diseases

Autoimmune bullous diseases are a group of disorders in which skin biopsies are essential part of the diagnosis. Histopathologically, examination mostly consist of localization of the bulla in the skin, type of the cells in the inflammation and other special features observed in the slides. While in some biopsies, findings facilitate the clinical diagnosis while in others it may not be possible to observe any differentiating feature. In case of autoimmune bullous diseases, addition of results of immunofluorescence staining, and if possible other test results is mandatory for a proper histopathological diagnosis. Herein this review, histopathological findings of routinely stained hematoxyline and eosin sections of lesional skin biopsies are discussed.