Urinary excretion of porphyrins and their precursors in chronic liver disease
Ostrowski, J.
Materia Medica Polona. Polish Journal of Medicine and Pharmacy 17(4): 240-245
1985
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-5246 PMID: 3834261 Document Number: 253997
Daily urinary excretion of porphyrins and their precursors was determined in 40 healthy persons, 40 patients with porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT), 100 patients without coexistent liver diseases, and 40 patients with chronic active hepatitis as well as 70 with cirrhosis. The excretion of porphyrin precursors exceeding the normal range was similarly frequent in control patients and in those with chronic liver diseases. These abnormalities cannot thus be related to morphological changes in the liver. If seems, however, that excessive production of porphyrin precursors in persons without disturbances of porphyrinogenesis typical of acute porphyria may suggest that the human environment with its high content of chemicals may increase the synthesis of porphyrins in man.