Images in Clinical Medicine

Kim Eagle, M.D., Editor

Porphyria cutanea tarda

Marc E. Grossman, M.D.

N Engl J Med 1994; 331:988October 13, 1994

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Article

Figure 1 Porphyria cutanea tarda.

Water-soluble porphyrins from a liver-biopsy specimen from a patient with porphyria cutanea tarda show pink fluorescence under a Wood's light (405 nm). The biopsy specimen (short arrow) was preserved in saline solution to prevent desiccation and then transferred to a piece of gauze. Drops of saline containing fluorescing water-soluble porphyrins, including uroporphyrin (8-carboxylporphyrin) and 7-carboxylporphyrin, stain the gauze pink around the specimen and elsewhere (long arrow).

Kim Eagle, M.D.

Marc E. Grossman, M.D.
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, NY 10032