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Juneja M. J Oral Sci 2008; 50: 213–214

The diligent student fathomed out that Nikolskiy's sign, the historical diagnostic indicator for pemphigus, has modifications. This short communication, which reads like a Russian romantic novel, states that the original sign, first described in 1894 by Nikolskiy, comprised three variants, with the common component of the physician removing/dislodging the horny layer from the diseased mucosa. Wilhelm Lutz, in 1957, then qualified this clinical finding by stating 'if (one) carefully rubbed on an uninvolved area ...a blister will form' and called this the Nikolskiy phenomenon. To add to the confusion, there is the Asboe-Hansen sign which is similar to that described by Luntz but is diagnostic of one of several vesicular-bullous conditions. The author does not mention the well established standard diagnostic method for pemphigus of direct immunofluoresence.