Treatment of pemphigus vulgaris with cyclosporine.

Treatment of a few severe cases of pemphigus vulgaris with ciclosporin has been reported. We describe a patient with pemphigus vulgaris of more than 3 years' duration who did not respond to prednisolone treatment in high doses nor plasmapheresis or pulse therapy with methylprednisolone. When therapy with ciclosporin (5.0 mg/kg/day) in combination with prednisolone (1.4 mg/kg/day) was given, clinical improvement was present after 1 week, and almost complete remission was seen after 11 weeks. We did not observe any side effects during 1 year of treatment except hypertrichosis and hypomagnesemia.