delta-aminolevulinate in 24 hour urine

Indications

• diagnosis & management of acute porphyria
• NOT a sensitive indicator of Pb poisoning

Reference interval

• urine (24 hour):
  • < 4.5 mg/L (< 34 umol/L)
  • 1.5-7.5 mg/day (11.4-57.2 umol/day)

Increases

see delta-aminolevulinic acid in serum

Decreases

see delta-aminolevulinic acid in serum

Methods

see delta-aminolevulinic acid in body fluid

Specimen

• collect in dark container containing 10 mL of 6 mol/L HCl
  • stable refrigerated for 1 week
  • specimen can NOT be used for porphobilinogen & porphyrins which need Na2CO3 as a preservative
  • some labs prefer NO preservative so that all heme precursors may be analyzed on the same specimen

More general terms

• delta-aminolevulinic acid urine
• 24 hour urine

Additional terms

• delta-aminolevulinate; 5-aminolevulinic acid; aminolevulinic acid (ALA)
• porphobilinogen
• porphyria

Patient information

delta-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) in 24 hour urine patient information