Abortive aphthous-like oral lesions: an underreported initial presentation of pemphigus vulgaris.

Background: Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) usually presents as non-healing, painful oral erosions, but transient or aphtha-like lesions are not exceptional at the very beginning of the disease leading to the common misdiagnosis of recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS). We designed this cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study to evaluate this underreported yet important presentation of PV.

Material And Methods: One hundred and eighty-five consecutive PV patients were interviewed and a questionnaire, comprising items related to the natural history of oral lesions, was filled in for each.