3 Wilson disease

Abstract

Wilson disease is a recessively inherited disorder of copper transport. Clinical features are highly variable, with any combination of neurological, hepatic or psychiatric illness. The age of onset varies from 3 to 50 years of age. Diagnosis is challenging because no specific combination of clinical or biochemical features is necessarily definitive. The genetic defect is due to a variety of abnormalities in a copper-transporting membrane ATPase. Most of the more than 80 mutations are present at a low frequency, and mutations differ between ethnic groups. At least two mutations are sufficiently common to aid in rapid diagnosis, in European and Asian populations respectively. Molecular analysis can provide a definitive diagnosis for asymptomatic sibs. Treatment, using chelating agents or zinc, is most effective when started before permanent tissue damage occurs.