Can Patients with Wilson's Disease Develop Copper Deficiency?

Wilson's disease (WD) is a rare genetic condition characterized by a copper overload in organs secondary to mutation in ATP7B gene. Lifelong decoppering treatments are the keystone of the treatment but must be regularly adapted to obtain a correct copper balance and could lead to copper deficiency (CD).

Study the characteristics of CD in WD patients.

CD cases from our cohort of 338 WD patients have been investigated. CD was defined by the association of serum copper, exchangeable copper and urinary copper excretion assays less than two standard deviations from the mean with cytopenia and/or neurological damage of spinal cord origin. A systematic review of literature about cases of CD in WD patient was performed in PubMed database according to PRISMA guidelines.

Three WD patients were diagnosed with CD in our cohort. Review of the literature found 17 other patients. Most of the patients had anemia and neutropenia associated with neurological symptoms (especially progressive posterior cord syndrome). All the patients were treated with Zinc salts and the symptoms occurred more than a decade after the initiation of treatment. The adaptation of the treatment allowed a correction of the cytopenia but only a partial improvement of the neurological symptoms.

WD patients can develop CD after many years of zinc therapy. Anemia and neutropenia are red flags that should evoke CD.