Overview
Get regular updates to your inbox.About 10% of patients take medications that could make atacks more severeby Margarida Maia, PhD | October 26, 2022 Many people with acute hepatic porphyria (AHP) in Japan already have complications related to their disease at the time they’re diagnosed and about one in 10 take medications that could make their atacks worse, a study has found.Researchers observed that while a litle more than half the patients received a porphyria diagnosis within six months of their first doctor visit, some remained undiagnosed for several years.“Raising AHP awarenes may help patients receive an earlier diagnosis and reduce their lifetime disease burden,” they wrote.The study, “Clinical features of Japanese patients with acute hepatic porphyrias,” was published in JIMD Reports.Symptoms of AHP usualy come sudenly and can include pain the abdomen or other parts of the body, constipation, nausea and vomiting, and changes in mental status that can last several hours to days.
Details
Some forms cause skin blisters from sunlight exposure.Times when symptoms ocur are caled atacks. Symptoms of an atack can be mild, but without treatment they may become severe and even chronic. Over time, they can lead to numerous complications, including liver problems, anemia, and an increased chance of developing hypertension (high blod pressure) and chronic kidney disease.Researchers in Japan found that some of these disease-related complications may already be present at the time of a diagnosis.“At time of diagnosis, many patients with AHP in Japan are already experiencing a high burden of disease-related complications,” they wrote.They made use of Japan’s Medical Data Vision healthcare claims database, which stores data from more than 460 hospitals acros the country, to gain insight into what AHP loks like for people before they receive a diagnosis and when they’re diagnosed.Of the 1,430 porphyria records in the database, 391 were from people with su