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John A. Johnson, PhD; Ramon M. Fusaro, MD, PhD
Department of Dermatology University of Nebraska Medical Center Omaha

JAMA. 1973;224(6):901-902.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

The current interest in therapeutic vitamin supplementation has produced a confused picture with respect to porphyria. As noted by Mustajoki in THE JOURNAL (221:714, 1972), the results of vitamin E therapy are contradictory. Thus, his group observed no clinical improvement in four patients with acute intermittent porphyria and one with variegate porphyria; whereas Nair et al¹ reported the successful use of vitamin E in porphyria. Ludwig² detected low tocopherol levels in persons with erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) and observed that the vitamin inhibited the in vitro photohemolysis of their red cells. This disease (EPP) is a good model for evaluating therapeutic agents, because it provides a sensitive in vivo criterion of efficacy (prevention of sunlight photosensitivity) as well as an in vitro standard (inhibition of erythrocyte photohemolysis). Provitamin A (β-carotene) has been employed successfully in EPP patients by Mathews-Roth et al.³ Although the rationale for . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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