Possible Immune Origin of Pemphigus

To the Editor: The paper by Anhalt et al. (May 20 issue)¹ demonstrates that the passive transfer of IgG from patients with pemphigus induces the disease in neonatal mice and provides one more piece of evidence for a pathogenic role of pemphigus autoantibody. We agree with Provost² that “new studies should be designed to determine whether therapy should be aimed primarily at elimination of the pemphigus antibody.” With such a goal in mind we have been using large-volume plasma exchanges for three years in 11 patients with pemphigus. Among these 11 patients plasma exchanges were very useful in controlling.