International Journal of Scientific Reports | July 2015 | Vol 1 | Issue 3 Page 184
International Journal of Scientific Reports
Mukherjee S. Int J Sci Rep. 2015 Jul;1(3):184-186
http://www.sci-rep.com
pISSN 2454-2156 | eISSN 2454-2164
Case Report
Metformin induced bullous pemphigoid, the first case
Sudeb Mukherjee*
INTRODUCTION
Bullous pemphigoid is a polymorphic autoimmune
subepidermal blistering disease seen in elderly
individuals. Exact etiology of this autoimmune process is
not known. Induced bullous pemphigoid has been
associated with several drugs but metformin is not one of
them. Being the first line agent in the treatment of type 2
Diabetes Mellitus (DM) metformin is used widely. Here I
have reported one such rare case of metformin induced
Bullous Pemphigoid (BP) which has not been reported in
medical literature so far.
CASE REPORT
A 64 year old female with history of type 2 DM attended
OPD with uncontrolled glycaemic status. Her Fasting
Plasma Glucose (FPG) was 192 mg/dl, Post Prandial
Plasma Glucose (PPPG) 265 mg/dl and HbA1C 8.7%.
She was on regular Soluble Insulin injection thrice daily.
She was advised to take metformin 500 mg twice daily
along with increase in the dose of regular meal time
insulin injection and to visit after 2 weeks. After 12 days
she came to emergency department with erythematous
blistering lesions involving both upper limb, trunk, lower
limb and scalp region. On examination it was found that
erythematous bullous lesions were tense, contained clear
fluid and were of varying sizes (4 cm - 8 cm in diameter)
(Figure 1). There was no mucosal involvement.
Figure 1: Showing tense fluid filled bullae over flexor
aspect of arm.
She was admitted and treated for drug hypersensitivity
reaction and skin biopsy was sent for histopathology
examination and direct immunofluorescence. At that time
ABSTRACT
Bullous pemphigoid is a polymorphic autoimmune subepidermal blistering disease seen in elderly individuals. Exact
etiology of this autoimmune process is not known. Induced bullous pemphigoid has been associated with several
drugs but metformin is not one of them. Here I have reported one such rare case of metformin induced Bullous
Pemphigoid (BP).
Keywords: Bullous pemphigoid, Metformin
Department of Medicine, R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Received: 26 June 2015
Accepted: 19 July 2015
*Correspondence:
Dr. Sudeb Mukherjee
E-mail: drsumukherjee@gmail.com
Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/issn.2454-2156.IntJSciRep20150357