# Diagnosis for Pseudoporphyria



## jahcpc (Oct 8, 2009)

Does anyone know what diagnosis code to use for Pseudoporphyia?

Pseudoporphyria is a condition which closely resembles true cutaneous porphyria (porphyria cutanea tarda, variegate porphyria) but porphyrin tests are normal. 

Thanks,
Judith


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## OCD_coder (Oct 9, 2009)

Because the patient does not actually have porphyria, the most accurate you can code is 277.9.  It is a disease of the metabolism because the patient is have some sort of change/symptoms to the metabolism that were tested, but we should not give them that diagnosis because they do not actually have it.

Consider the case of a patient who has a disease that mimics HIV, should we give them a dx on their record of HIV because there is no specific code for this situation?  No.


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