Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 2/2/2007

Question
Ok my 9 year old male had a skin biopsy today and they are looking in particular for Pemphigus foliaceous and possibly a rare lymphomia of the skin(can't think of the name of it right now)but they are leaning towords it most likely being thankfully Pemphigus foliaceous-but I can't help but be nervouse of the results

anywas my main questions are this,first of all what are the main differences of two,I mean like what are the symptoms that differ one for the other? they did say that Pemphigus foliaceous tends to be in more places such as the ears and feet,while the lymphomia is more just on the skin-and he does have it on his feet and ears

my other question is this,they said if doesn't turn out be either of these,they will have to do tests for other problems,what are the other conditions could it be if not either of these?

Answer
Pemphigus causes separation of certain layers of the skin and lymphoma is a cancer within the layers of skin.  That will be easy to distinguish from the biopsy.  Often pemphigus and discoid lupus look alike on the skin biopsy, so they do a special immunohistochemical stain to see which layer of skin has separated.