The use of paraffin-processed tissue and the immunoperoxidase technique in the diagnosis of bullous diseases, lupus erythematosus and vasculitis

Abstract

Skin biopsies were obtained from patients suffering from bullous pemphigoid (5), pemphigus (3), dermatitis herpetiformis (3), systemic lupus erythematosus (6), chronic discoid lupus erythematosus (2) and vasculitis (3). Half of the biopsies were examined by the immunoperoxidase technique on paraffin-fixed tissue; the other half were exmined by immunoperoxidase (IP) and immunofluorescence (IF) technique on snap-frozen tissue. All 23 specimens gave positive results by frozen IF techniques, 19 of 22 (86%) were positive by frozen IP techniques and 16 of 22 (72%) were positive by IP on paraffin-fixed material. If retrospective immunopathology is required on a specimen and only paraffin-fixed material is available a positive result may be expected in the majority of cases.