1750-1172-5-S1-P16 1750-1172 Poster presentation <p>European Porphyria Network (EPNET) for information, epidemiological data, quality and equity of service</p> Deybach Jean-Charles Parker Samantha sparker@orphan-europe.com Badmiton Mike Sandberg Sverre

Centre Francais des porphyries, INSERM U773, Hôpital Louis Mourier, 178 rue des Renouillers, Colombes, 92701, France

EPNET Programme Manager, 70 avenue du Général de Gaulle, 92058 Puteaux La Défense, France

Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, University Hospital of Wales, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XW, UK

Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen, Postboks 7800, NO-5020 Bergen, Norway

 Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases <p>5th European Conference on Rare Diseases (ECRD 2010)</p> Joseph Torrent i Farnell, Torben Grønnebaek and François Houÿez Meeting abstracts - A single PDF containing all abstracts in this Supplement is available here. <p>5th European Conference on Rare Diseases (ECRD 2010)</p> Krakow, Poland 13-15 May 2010 http://www.rare-diseases.eu/2010/index.php 1750-1172 2010 5 Suppl 1 P16 http://www.ojrd.com/content/5/S1/P16 10.1186/1750-1172-5-S1-P16 19 10 2010 2010 Parker et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Porphyrias are metabolic diseases that affect about 1 in 20,000 of the EU population. Most healthcare professionals rarely encounter these disorders and there is disparity between countries in the levels of support provided for patients and their carers.

EPNET is a DG Sanco funded project (1/4/2007-31/3/2010) with 15 participating countries that aims to establish a network of specialist porphyria centres, each working to agreed quality criteria. Work achieved:

1. Information on porphyria for patients in 10 languages, and for healthcare professionals in English, is available at http://www.porphyria-europe.org with easily downloadable pdf files.

2. Data on the safety of drugs in acute porphyria has been collected from participating countries (2901 drug reports on 616 drugs). Information is disseminated on http://www.drugs-porphyria.org

3. European Quality Assessment (EQA) schemes have been established for specialist laboratories (24 participants in 17 countries) and data on laboratory performance collected annually. Variations between centres are being addressed and diagnostic protocols developed.

4. The EPNET registry now contains data on 371 patients (320 new cases; 51 with long term complications) that is being used to calculate the incidence of each porphyria in participating countries and the prevalence of long term complications, The incidence of new cases of acute intermittent porphyria is around 0.15/million/year in most countries.

The initial purposes of the EPNET project have been achieved; we have established a rich data resource, a network for improving quality of care and a European platform for expert exchange.

EPNET has been funded by the European Commission through its Public Health and Consumer Protection Directorate (DG SANCO), PHEA programme.