Symptoms | Test | Laboratories |
---|---|---|
Acute attacks of severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, rapid heartbeat and other symptoms. | Spot or 24 hour urine delta-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) and porphobilinogen (PBG)* | UTMB, ARUP, Mount Sinai**, Mayo, Quest, LabCorp |
Blistering skin photosensitivity (with or without acute attack symptoms) | Plasma total porphyrins | UTMB, ARUP, Mayo, Quest, LabCorp |
*Take sample when symptoms are present
An acute porphyria should be suspected if patient presents with neurolvisceral signs and symptoms. The first-line screening test is measurement of urinary porphobilinogen (PBG). PBG is markedly increased in all patients during acute porphyria attacks and not markedly elevated in other medical conditions that can present with similar symptoms. Therefore, this test is both sensitive and specific for diagnosing an acute porphyria. An exception is ADP, in which ALA is elevated but not PBG. However, the condition is not usually under consideration because of its extreme rarity.
Measurement of PBG is often combined with ALA and total urine porphyrins. In some patients with acute porphyria, urinary porphyrins may remain increased longer than ALA and PBG. However, mild increases in urinary porphyrins can occur in other medical conditions and is therefore much less specific than increases in ALA and PBG. In urgent situations, a “stat” PBG for diagnosis is not available through any of the large reference labs. While the report is pending, initial management of the patient should be tailored to the possibility of acute porphyria, correcting fluid and electrolyte imbalances, pain control, and avoidance of medications that could worsen an attack (such as phenytoin for seizures). Patients with progressive neurological signs should be started on intravenous hemin. Intravenous dextrose can be administered while hemin is being prepared but should not cause a delay of hemin infusion.
If urine ALA and PBG are normal during an attack, it essentially rules out an acute porphyria. If urine ALA and PBG are markedly increased, a diagnosis of an acute porphyria is confirmed and further testing is needed to identify the type of acute porphyria. A minor (~2-fold) elevation in urine porphyrins (especially coproporphyrin) with normal ALA and PBG is nonspecific and may not require further testing.
Acute Porphyria | HMBS activity in RBCs | Urine PBG | Urine ALA | Urine porphyrins | Fecal porphyrins | Plasma porphyrins |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AIP | Decreased in ~90% of cases | elevated | elevated | Markedly increased; mostly uroporphyrin | Normal or slightly increased | Normal or slightly increased |
HCP | normal | elevated | elevated | Markedly increased; mostly coproporphyrin | Markedly increased; mostly coproporphyrin III | Normal or slightly increased |
VP | normal | elevated | elevated | Markedly increased; mostly coproporphyrin III | Markedly increased; mostly protoporphyrin | Markedly increased; Fluorescence peak (at neutral pH) at ~626nm |
ADP | normal | normal | elevated | Markedly increased; mostly coproporphyrin III | Normal or slightly increased | Normal or slightly increased |
Labs that can be used for second-line testing include: UTMB, ARUP, Mayo, Quest, and LabCorp
The screening tests vary by specific symptoms for the cutaneous porphyrias. Total plasma porphyrins should be done for blistering skin photosensitivity. If this test is normal, cutaneous porphyrias that cause blistering skin lesions are effectively excluded. Further testing may be needed if total plasma porphyrins are increased. For suspected EPP/XLP, which has non-blistering photosensitivity, an erythrocyte protoporphyrin test is more specific. Urine ALA and PBG testing is not informative for any of the cutaneous porphyrias.
Porphyria | Urine porphyrins | Erythrocyte porphyrins | Plasma fluorescence emission peak | Laboratories |
---|---|---|---|---|
CEP | Increased; mostly uro- and coproporphyrin I | Increased; mostly Zn-proto, copro-, and uroporphyrin | 615-620nm | UTMB, ARUP, Mayo, Quest, LabCorp |
PCT & HEP | Increased; mostly uro- and heptacarboxylate porphyrin | normal | 615-620nm | |
EPP | normal | Increased; mostly protoporphyrin; free-proto significantly greater than Zn-protoporphyrin | 626-634nm | UTMB, ARUP, Mayo |
XLP | normal | Increased; mostly protoporphyrin; free-proto equal to Zn-protoporphyrin | 626-634nm |
For all the porphyrias genetic testing is recommended to confirm the diagnosis as well as biochemical testing. The following table lists the causative genes for each type of porphyria.
Porphyria | Enzyme Name | Gene Symbol | Laboratories that do Genetic Testing |
---|---|---|---|
AIP | Hydroxymethylbilane synthase | HMBS | Mount Sinai Genetic Testing Lab, Mayo Clinic Molecular Genetics Lab |
VP | Protoporphyrinogen oxidase | PPOX | |
HCP | Coproporphyringen-III oxidase | CPOX | |
CEP | Uroporphyrinogen III synthase | UROS | |
PCT & HEP | Uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase | UROD | |
EPP | Ferrochelatase | FECH | |
XLP | 5-aminolevulinate synthase 2 | ALAS2 |
**The Mount Sinai Lab only tests for urine ALA and PBG