[A rare metabolic disease: alkaptonuria--ochronosis].

The authors describe the case of a 40-year-old female patient. Since childhood her urine had caused black discoloration on her underwear. For about a year the skin of the axillae and pinnae had been bluish-black without subjective complaints. One year before admission, pain in the thoracic and lumbar spine began, with limitation of motion. Examination of the urine, histological and electron microscopical findings, and X-ray examination of the spinal column confirmed the diagnosis of alkaptonuria and congenital ochronosis.