GUILLAIN-BARRE SYNDROME ASSOCIATED WITH PORPHYRINURIA*

I T is not too uncommon to find in the literature cases first diagnosed as Guillain-Barre syndrome that eventually prove to be porphyria. This con-tingency usually occurs when an alert observer notices the dark urine character-istic of porphyria, or when, in spite of a normally colored urine, the symp-tomatology makes one suspicious and, on examining the urine, one finds the pathognomonic porphyrins or precursors. Although in the case herein reported porphobilinogen and uroporphyrin were found in the urine after a diagnosis of acute infectious polyneuritis had been made, it is held that acute infectious polyneuritis was the primary diagnosis, with the abnormal porphyrins repre-senting either a secondary change or a fortuitous finding. CASE REPORT A 14 year old white female entered The Brooklyn Hospital for the first time on March 20, 1958, complaining of weakness in her legs. Three weeks prior to ad-mission she had noticed a tingling sensation in her feet. Two weeks later she experi-enced the same sensation in her fingertips. This was followed by weakness in th