I found this looking for the blood test on PCT. I’m still searching for that one. I was always tested for it via a 24 hour urine collection. Last year my hepatologist (Yep, Eileen, Lori!) said she was going to do it via a blood test. I’ll look back through my tests to see if I can find it. She may have meant she was going to run the standard Iron/hematocrit/ etc. tests that show it elevated.

All of you should know that this is the only disease that is common to both HCV and AO exposure. Funny- if you look at the bottom of this site, there is an admonition to avoid pesticides with 2, 4, 5 T ( dioxin precursor). Duh?

http://dermnetnz.org/systemic/porphyria-cutanea-tarda.html

VA doctors will try to pin this on too much booze. Ask for a liver Bx and it would show hyaline cirrhosis if it was. If it’s from HCV or AO it will show piecemeal necrosis and high iron deposits. Don’t let the doctors smoke you. VA law says you had to manifest this at a compensable level of 10% or more within one year of leaving the RVN (or within a year of last exposure). How many of you would even know to look for this back then? I didn’t. Hell, I thought it was some kind of foot rot on my hands and arms all those years. It took me 10 years to cure the jungle rot as it was.

This one discusses it as being found it the plasma which is a blood component:

http://www.porphyriafoundation.com/about-porphyria/types-of-porphyria/PCT

Always remember, VA is not going to ‘fess up” and own this. Most of you will not get it as a component of AO exposure unless you can point to some skin irritation issue in service. Most will get it rated as a secondary to HCV. Now–big trick here for more percentage-you can get 40% under DC 7704 Polycythemia Ver for your phlebotomies AND still get 10% for scarring via DC 7815  of the hands and dorsal aspects of your forearms/neck/ face etc. This isn’t pyramiding or piggybacking your rating because the two issues are not of the same etiology. Cool, huh?

P.S. Here’s a really good source on this and a lot of evidence you can copy and paste for your Thailand claim. Unfortunately, it doesn’t touch on the  remote bases I mentioned except for Ramasun at Ban Nong Sung. It was pretty obvious at Chieng Mai, Ko Kha and Long Tieng. I was never in Luang Prabang for long enough to witness any applications but there wasn’t any vegetative anything around the parking apron, perimeters or the runway. There’s a lot of info and it’ll take 30+ seconds to boot it. A very good read.

http://www.viet-remf.net/The%20Exclusion%20of%20Thailand%20Veterans%20Report.pdf