Recent advances in molecular biology have enabled the association of epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS) with point mutations of keratin 14 and/or keratin 5 genes to be established. We describe here the detection of point mutations in genomic DNA from formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded sections from five cases of epidermolysis bullosa using the PCR amplification of specific alleles (PASA) method. In two of four cases of Köbner-type EBS a point mutation of helix 2b (384 Leu-Pro) was detected and in one case of Dowling-Meara-type EBS a mutation in helix 1a (125 Arg-Cys) was detected. The results of this study are consistent with previous reports and they demonstrate that the PASA method is a rapid and reproducible method for the detection of single-base changes and small deletions.