[Liver cirrhosis and chronic hepatic porphyria]

Chronic hepatic porphyrias (CHP) are associated with different degrees of liver damage. They range from minimal histological changes to cirrhosis and primary liver carcinomas. Forty patients with early stages of porphyrias were compared to 85 patients with clinically manifest porphyrias, Porphyria cutanea tarda. This comparison resulted in the fact that cirrhosis occurred more often in early (or latent) stages (65%) than in PCT (31%) confirmed by laparoscopy. Thus the severity of the liver disease does not depend on the duration and intensity of cutaneous symptoms or pathobiochemical syndromes but they more often depend on the long-term influence of so-called trigger factors, among them above all alcohol and iron overloading. We conclude that the proof of latent CHP has an index function for severer liver damage.