Lead poisoning mimicking acute porphyria

We are presenting a case of a 13-year-old autistic boy whose urine porphyrin test came positive on three separate occasions. The child was brought to emergency department of Kasturba Medical College Hospital, Attavar, Mangalore, India, with fever and acute abdominal pain, with no previous history of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of clinical and diagnostic research 2014-12, Vol.8 (12), p.CD01-CD02
Main Authors: L N, Akshatha, M S, Rukmini, Shenoy, Mamatha T, P, Sadashiva Rao, B, Prashanth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biochemistry Section
lead poisoning
porphyria
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Summary:We are presenting a case of a 13-year-old autistic boy whose urine porphyrin test came positive on three separate occasions. The child was brought to emergency department of Kasturba Medical College Hospital, Attavar, Mangalore, India, with fever and acute abdominal pain, with no previous history of any serious illness. Investigations revealed thalassemia trait,microcytic hypochromic anaemia while the other biochemical and haematological parameters were normal. False positive urine porphyrin test may be seen in porphyria induced by liver cancer, hepatitis and heavy metal poisoning such as lead, arsenic and mercury. Blood lead (PbB) level was 59.5μg/dl. Further evaluation revealed a daily consumption of native medicine in the form of syrup.
ISSN:2249-782X
0973-709X
DOI:10.7860/JCDR/2014/10597.5315