El poder del test de Hoesch

Acute porphirias are a rare group of diseases in which the main clinical expression are abdominopsychoneurological crisis. The most typical symptom is abdominal pain. If left untreated, acute porphyria attacks are associated with a high mortality rate (about 10%). Early diagnosis is very important. A rapid test to detect porphobilinogen (PBG) called the Hoesch test can be used for this purpose. If we have a positive test we can affirm that the clinical issues are induced by a porphyric attack. With this background, early treatment must be started with human hemin. Our purpose is to prove the utility of the Hoesch test in the treatment period. Therefore, we made daily Hoesch tests in a porphyria crisis. We noticed that the Hoesch test remains positive without symptoms. It seems that the Hoesch test does not offer information to take the decision to stop treatment. More patients are necessary to prove this conclusion.