Porphyria Research Paper

Summary: Porphyria is an uncommon, genetically caused disease, which makes the blood pigment in hemoglobin to not properly be changed into material for your body to use. The title porphyria originates from the modern latin term porphyrin which are pigments containing heme or chlorophyll with molecules that have a flat ring of four connected heterocyclic groups and occasionally a metal atom. There are two different forms of porphyria; acute porphyria and cutaneous porphyria. Acute porphyria affects the nervous system, while cutaneous porphyria causes skin symptoms. Some symptoms of "acute porphyria include: severe abdominal pain, swelling of the abdomen (abdominal distention), pain in your chest, legs or back, constipation or diarrhea, vomiting, insomnia, heartbeat you can feel (palpitations), high blood pressure,"("Porphyria" 1-2). Some signs and symptoms of cutaneous porphyria are," Sensitivity to the sun and sometimes artificial light, causing burning pain, sudden painful skin redness (erythema) and swelling (edema), blisters that take weeks to heal, itching, fragile skin, scars or skin color changes from healing blisters, and increased hair growth" (Porphyria" 2). …show more content…
Because of porphyria the heme-making pathway is interrupted and the extra porphyrins which aren't metabolized begin to accumulate in the bladder along with other organs and can have a reaction. The abnormal urine coloring usually happens when there is a disease reaction. Due to an illness reaction the color of the urine turns into a deep violet color. The urine may be left alone for a couple of hours or had light or heat exposure. When the urine is left alone for a few hours’ bacteria can react with the violet coloring, changing it to blue. Having light or heat exposure will also can the urea's