A clinicopathological study of mucosal involvement in linear IgA disease

Mucosal involvement in linear IgA disease was assessed clinically and immunologically using direct and indirect immunofluorescence (IF) techniques. There was clinical evidence of oral mucosal involvement in all 10 patients examined and conjunctival diseases in six. Direct IF findings correlated well with clinical oral disease, with all patients demonstrating linear IgA deposits in the basement membrane zone of oral mucosa. However, this was not true of conjunctiva where no linear IgA could be demonstrated. Conjunctiva did provide a good substrate for indirect immunofluorescence using patients' sera, and showed that five of the 10 patients had circulating anti-basement membrane zone IgA.