Normal faecal porphyrin values in babies.

Normalfaeces contain bothcoproporphyrin and protoporphyrin inverysmallquantities. These arise inpartasby-products fromhaemsynthesis whichareexcreted viathebileintothegut,in partfromdegradation ofingested haem,andpossibly alsoinpartbybacterial synthesis inthe intestine. Inadults normal values (Barnes, 1957) are:coproporphyrin, 0-15ug.perg.dryweight; andprotoporphyrin, 0-45.lAg. perg.dryweight. Thepurpose ofthis investigation wastoestablish normalvalues inbabies frombirth upto1 yearofage.Onlyonereference intheliterature hasbeenfoundtoporphyrin determinations in babies andchildren (Fokina, 1947), but, whereas Fokinahasestimated average faecal elimination values per24hours, these values areexpressed as micrograms pergrammedryweight andtherefore thetwoinvestigations arenotstrictly comparable. Material Randomspecimens ofstool werecollected from babies onordinary hospital diet, withnohistory of porphyrinuria andsuffering fromdiseases orconditions notthought toinfluence porphyrin metabolism. Determinations wererepeated several times during the patients' stayinhospital. Thespecimens ofstool wereyellow tokhakiincolour; nonewasdark brownorblack. Theageandsexdistribution ofthebabies are showninTableI. TABLEI