Uroporphyria: Some notes on its ancient historical background

Black urine is recorded in all ancient urology as a negative prognostic sig n, often linked with the presence of blood; its presence can also be consid ered as a sign of massive hemolytic crisis, especially if associated with s pecific nosological patterns. The Hippocratic case of Epidemics III, 11 has recently been diagnosed as an intermittent acute porphyria. Despite the di fficult 'retrospective' diagnosis of an ancient case, it seems likely that the Hippocratic physicians empirically knew clinical associations of sympto ms that modern medicine could consider as the first descriptions of porphyr ia.