Abstract
The authors previously reported a case on barbiturate therapy, complicated with porphyrinuria, and in the present study, confirmed the existence of porphyrinuria during the barbiturate therapy, by determination of porphyrin body in the urine. The subjects were 9 cases on barbiturate therapy, hospitalized for central neuvons system disease during last 4 years. These disease were acute subdural hematoma (4 cases) and traumatic intracerebral hematoma, subarachnoid hemorrhage, arteriovenous malformation, anoxic brain and herpes simplex encephalitis (1 case, each). These subjects averaged 38.9 years and showed mean Glasgow coma scale of 6.5 points on admission. Barbiturate therapy consisted of continuous intravenous infusion of thiamylal at a dose of 1-5mg·kg-1·hr-1. The medication averaged 8.6 days in duration with average total dose of 667.4mg·kg-1. Complicated porphyrinuria, abnormally high urinary coproporphyrin, uroporphyrin and porphobilinogen were noted in 3, 2 and 1 cases, respectively. These 3 cases of complicated porphyrinuria had longer medication and larger total dose of barbiturate and were all compicated with liver dysfunction. The present examination suggests that prophyrinuria should also be kept in mind as a complication of barbiturate therapy.
