Pathogenesis of neural manifestations in acute porphyria
Date
1977
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Health & Medical Publishing Group
Abstract
At least 4 possible mechanisms may be postulated to explain the neural manifestations of acute porphyria in the hereditary hepatic porphyrias. These are: (i) excessive amounts of porphyrins or porphyrin precursors produced in the liver during acute attacks are transported to the central and peripheral nervous system, where they exert neurotoxic effect; (ii) unidentified metabolites of the aforementioned compounds may be responsible; (iii) in patients with these diseases there may be a metabolic defect in neural haem biosynthesis which is aggravated by precipitating factors, thereby leading to acute neural manifestations; and (iv) the hepatic and nervous system lesions may be metabolically quite unrelated. Each of these possibilities is considered, and evidence is adduced that a genetic defect in haem biosynthesis in the nervous system is the most plausible hypothesis.
Description
CITATION: Shanley, B. C., Percy, V. A. & Neethling, A. C. 1977. Pathogenesis of neural manifestations in acute porphyria. South African Medical Journal, 51:458-460.
The original publication is available at http://www.samj.org.za
The original publication is available at http://www.samj.org.za
Keywords
Porphyria