No abstract

The determination of the enzymatic activity of URO-D in erythrocytes is the screening method used for differentiation between hereditary and non-hereditary forms of porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT). The aim of the present work was to establish the relative frequencies of the symptomatic and hereditary forms by the determination of the URO-D enzyme in the PCT patients who were regularly treated at the Centre for Porphyrins in our Institute. In the course of this work we also examined the statistical properties of the distributions of both normal and porphyric subjects, so as to be able to suggest values for discriminating between normal subjects and the various types of porphyric subjects.

SUMMARY A woman had the typical clinical, cutaneous, and muscular picture of dermatomyositis but without some of the biochemical alterations of that disease. The positive serological investigations for toxoplasmosis, the presence in muscles of very numerous toxoplasms and their culture in mice, and the improvement after treatment with pyrimethamine and sulphamethoxypyridine demonstrated that the signs of dermatomyositis had been caused by infection with toxoplasmosis.

Two cases of hereditary coproporphyria showed unusual nervous system involvement, one epilepsy with onset in childhood, and the other chronic central and peripheral nervous system damage. The literature is briefly discussed.