Urinary excretion of D-glucaric acid in porphyria cutanea tarda

Twenty patients with porphyria cutanea tarda who had ingested no alcohol for at least 10 days before sampling were found to possess urinary D-glucaric acid levels similar to those of 30 clinically healthy controls. Correlation between urinary excretion of D-glucaric acid on the one hand and plasma or urinary porphyrin concentrations on the other was not statistically significant. These results suggest that the high urinary concentrations of D-glucaric acid found in porphyria cutanea tarda patients by Budillon et al. (Acta Hepato-Gastroenterol. 25 (1978) 267) may have been due to recent consumption of alcohol rather than to the porphyrin pathology.