ACUTE INTERMITTENT PORPHYRIA: A REPORT OF FIVE CASES AND A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE*

doi:10.1059/0003-4819-41-6-1170

ACUTE INTERMITTENT PORPHYRIA: A REPORT OF FIVE CASES AND A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE*

MEYER MARKOVITZ, M.D.

Excerpt

INTRODUCTION Since the review of porphyria by Mason, Courville, and Ziskind¹ 20 years ago, and Waldenstrom's classic description of the acute disease in 1937,³ there have been a number of advances in the biochemistry of the porphyrins, stemming in great part from the laboratory of Watson and his associates.^{2, 65, 66} In 1941 these investigators described a simple test (Watson-Schwartz test) for the demonstration of porphobilinogen in the urine which has greatly facilitated the diagnosis of acute intermittent porphyria⁴ and which has gained wide acceptance.⁵⁹

The following is a report of five patients with acute intermittent porphyria studied in the

This 100-word excerpt has been provided in the absence of an abstract.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgment is made to the following: the Departments of Medicine and Pathology, College of Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for the history of the terminal illness and postmortem findings in case 5; to Dr. Norman Roberg for referring case 3 to the hospital; and to Dr. Robert Kark for the determinations of urine uroporphyrin and coproporphyrin. Also, my appreciation to my preceptors, in particular Dr. George G. Jackson, for their encouragement and helpful criticism.

Article and Author Information

↵* Received for publication December 28, 1953.
From the Department of Medicine, University of Illinois College of Medicine, and the Research and Educational Hospitals, Chicago, Illinois.