Incidence and Clinical Characteristics of Ocular Involvement in Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid

Purpose: To describe the risk of developing ocular mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP) or a new extraocular site of MMP, and to identify risk factors for new involvement.

Methods: Retrospective chart review of 162 biopsy-proven MMP patients.

Results: At presentation, 109 of 162 MMP patients (67.3%) had ocular involvement and 53 patients did not. Of the 53 patients without ocular involvement at presentation followed up to 22 years, the risk of developing ocular MMP was 0.014 per person-year (PY, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.005/PY, 0.034/PY). The risk of developing any new location of extraocular MMP was 0.020/PY (95% CI: 0.007/PY, 0.043/PY). Smoking was a risk factor for developing an additional extraocular MMP location (hazard ratio [HR] = 4.09, p = 0.04).

Conclusions: Patients presenting with extraocular MMP are at risk for developing ocular MMP, and all MMP patients are at risk for developing secondary extraocular MMP locations, although the rates were low.