Experimental Production of Skin Lesions in Human Cutaneous Porphyria.

Abstract

Irradiation of 6 light sensitive porphyrics (after establishment of cutaneous porphyrins in skin biopsies) with low spectral energy of the Soret wave-band (4050A) up to 60 minutes failed to produce skin lesions, whereas erythema, edema, and vesiculation were often noted when the UV was accompanied or immediately followed by modest energy in the near IR (26000A). Change of this sequence is followed only by a transitory erythema. Lesions were more readily produced by the UV-IR exposure in the unexposed skin of the abdomen which regularly exhibited more intense porphyrin fluorescence than the exposed skin of the hands.