Fluorescence methods in the diagnosis and management of diseases of tetrapyrrole metabolism.

Under appropriate conditions fluorescent porphyrins and bilirubin present in blood and other body fluids can be examined spectrofluorometrically without prior extraction. Uses of such direct fluorescence spectroscopy of porphyrins and bilirubin in studies and diagnoses of diseases associated with abnormal or impaired heme synthesis and metabolism are reviewed. The method of "front-face" fluorometry which allows quantitative assays of fluorescent porphyrins and bilirubin in small undiluted blood specimens is described.