Pregnancy-triggered maternal pemphigus vulgaris with persistent gingival lesions

Pregnancy as a triggering factor of pemphigus vulgaris (PV) seems to be quite a rare phenomenon. According to a recent review, only 38 reports describing 49 pregnant women with PV have been published in English language literature. A 34-year-old woman is described with pregnancy-triggered PV showing persistent gingival erosions. In addition, a shift from mucocutaneous to mucosal-dominant clinical variant of the disease in the mother, suggested by clinical features, was confirmed at the molecular level by determination of anti-desmoglein (DSG) 1 and anti-DSG 3 circulating IgG autoantibodies with ELISA. The case presented shows that PV in pregnancy requires care by a gynecologist, dermatologist and neonatologist. They all should be aware of the peculiarities of PV in pregnancy and be willing to cooperate with each other. Noteworhily, in contrast to cutaneous lesions, gingival lesions seen in the mother in the mucosal-dominant stage of her PV after delivery were unresponsive to intravenous and oral corticosteroid/oral cyclophosphamide treatment scheme.