[Combination therapy of porphyria cutanea tarda using chloroquine and bloodletting therapy]

14 patients with PCT were treated with phlebotomy combined with Chloroquine. 4 venesections were performed before Chloroquine-treatment administered intermittently twice weekly. The so-called flu-syndrome manifested itself in the majority of patients. The clinical symptoms of PCT regressed within 6 weeks to 4 months of treatment, and the urinary uroporphyrin excretion returned to normal within 6 weeks to 3 months. Besides the flu-syndrome no side-effects could be observed. There has been a clinical and biochemical remission for a year and a half in each case but one. Relapse occurred in one case only one year after treatment.