1 The Department of Pediatrics, Tulane University School of Medicine, and the Charity Hospital of Louisiana, New Orleans, La.
An infant born of a mother suffering from acute porphyria excreted excessive amounts of uroporphyrin and coproporphyrin in the urine during the first few weeks following birth. In the course of the next several months the infant was entirely free from unusual signs or symptoms, except that her stature at 11 months was small. No similar case has previously been recorded. The term "passive porphyrinuria" is suggested to describe this condition.
While an excess of porphyrins in the fetal environment may have resulted in stunting of growth, other evidences in this patient offer support to the belief that the pathologic lesions of porphyria result from the metabolic error and not from the presence of these pigments per se.