Pregnancy and the acute porphyrias

An analysis is presented of the obstetric histories of 50 women with acute porphyria, comprising 39 with acute intermittent porphyria, 3 with variegate porphyria and 8 with hereditary coporporphyria. Fifty-four per cent of the women with acute intermittent porphyria had an acute attack of porphyria in pregnancy and/or the puerperium. Only one maternal death was recorded. One patient with variegate prophyria and two with hereditary coproporphyria had an attack related to pregnancy. The total fetal wastage was 13 per cent. The babies born to mothers with acute intermittent porphyria, who experienced an acute attack during pregnancy, were smaller than those in which no such attack occurred (P less than 0.001). In 13 non-porphyric primigravidae there was a rise in urinary excretion of delta-aminolaevulinic acid, porphobilinogen and coproporphyrin up to the 28th week of gestation. It is probable that pregnancy has some deleterious effects in acute prophyria but the prognosis of the porphyric pregnancy is much better than the literature suggests.