[The combination of carbohydrate and porphyrinic exchange disturbances: is it a chance or regularity?]

The subjects of the study were 399 patients with internal diseases and metabolic disturbances. Carbohydrate exchange parameters (fasting level of capillary blood glucose and glucose tolerance test), and porphyrin fractions in urine (uroporphyrin, coproporphyrin), and feces (protoporphyrin, coproporphyrin) were measured. Hepatic type of porphyrinic dysmetabolism was registered in 201 (50.4%) patients. Out of these patients, 38 had disturbances corresponding to the criteria of symptomatic elevation of fecal porphyrin level, 28 had secondary coproporphyrinuria, 40 had latent, and 95 had manifest late cutaneous porphyria. In patients with normal porphyrinic exchange, the frequency of carbohydrate exchange disturbances did not exceed 6%, while in patients with different variants of porphyrinic dysmetabolism it was almost 40%. The results show that patients with hepatic type of porphyrinic dysmetabolism should be considered to have a higher risk of the development of diabetes mellitus and other carbohydrate disorders.