Dermatitis herpetiformis in children: a long‐term follow‐up study

Funding sources: The work was supported by the Competitive Research Funding of Tampere University Hospital grants 9F0639N062 and 9P060, the Academy of Finland and the Sigrid Juselius Foundation. Conflicts of interest: none declared. Dear Editor, Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) is an itching, blistering skin disease that typically presents with a rash on the elbows, knees and buttocks. Diagnosis is confirmed by direct immunofluorescence demonstrating granular IgA deposits in the papillary dermis. The majority of patients with DH have coeliac‐type enteropathy in the small intestine, and the rash responds to a gluten‐free diet (GFD).1 Currently, it is recognized that DH is an extraintestinal manifestation of coeliac disease, and that these two conditions occur frequently in the same families or in identical twins.2 Coeliac disease often appears in childhood, whereas DH seems to be rare in children. All children with DH in our prospectively collected series were followed up,3 and special attention was paid to the success of the GFD treatment.