Porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) in a patient with chronic renal failure on haemodialysis.

Porphyria cutanea tarda, diagnosed by reduced levels of red cell uroporphyrin decarboxylase and raised plasma porphyrins, developed in a patient with chronic renal failure due to polycystic kidneys, treated with haemodialysis, who had normal total faecal porphyrins. Haemodialysis did not alter plasma porphyrin levels and we deduced that most of the plasma porphyrins were circulating in high molecular weight protein complexes.