Linear IgA disease (LAD)

Also known as linear IgA bullous dermatosis or chronic bullous disease of childhood, LAD causes blisters on the skin and mucous membranes. Typically, the skin blisters form in a line, and a corresponding line of IgA antibodies is found below the epidermis during skin biopsies.

Blistery rashes along the anogenital area and lower abdomen in children before puberty, and along the trunk and extensor surface of the limbs in adults, itching, blisters and ulcers on lips and inside of mouths, eye irritation and dryness, light sensitivity, blurred vision, corneal scarring, and potentially blindness.

Inflammatory bowel disease, lymphoma, hematological conditions, rheumatological diseases, and toxic epidermal necrolysis.

Children of preschool age and children in developing countries are more frequently afflicted. In some cases, the condition’s onset is associated with exposure to a drug such as diclofenac, captopril, amiodarone, or to toxic substances such as sodium hypochlorite (household bleach).

• An unusal case of linear IgA disease affecting only the oral gingiva: a case report (2023)
• Updates in the diagnosis and management of Linear IgA disease: A systematic review (2021)
• History, diagnosis, pathogenesis, and nomenclature in the sublamina densa-type linear IgA disease (2021)
• Autoantibody profile of a cohort of 54 italian patients with linear IgA bullous dermatosis: LAD-1 denoted as a major auto-antigen of the lamina lucida subtype (2020)