Porphyria Cutanea Tarda in Relapse: A Case Report

Abstract

The relative frequency of the various types of porphyria Watson and colleagues (1951), reporting 88 cases of porphyria, observed over a 14-year period, found only 5 patients with con- genital porphyria, 10 with "mixed " (cutanea tarda) porphyria, and 73 with acute porphyria. Nevertheless, porphyria cutanea tarda may be much more common than is supposed (Macgregor, Nicholas, and Rimington, 1952; The finding of normal urinary porphyrin in a patient seen only in the remission phase might lead to the exclusion altogether of porphyria from the diagnosis, but a stool porphyrin determination will always reveal the excessive total porphyrin excretion. Increased vigilance in dermatological case material might be rewarding. Brunsting and associates (1951) referred to 21 cases of the adult form of chronic porphyria with cuLtaneous manifestations seen at the Mayo Clinic in the previous six years.