Implications of Manganese in Chronic Acquired Hepatocerebral Degeneration.

Neurological symptoms can be one of the over-riding symptoms in patients with liver cirrhosis. Patients can present with subtle changes in mood or neurological function due to hepatic encephalopathy (HE), to more severe presentations including stupor and coma. While HE, in its severe form, can be clinically easy to diagnose, more subtle forms may be more difficult to recognize. Other neurological diseases may indeed be overlooked in the context of cirrhosis or confuse the physician regarding the diagnosis. Chronic acquired hepatocerebral degeneration (CAHD) is an uncommon problem occurring in patients with cirrhosis characterised by a Parkinsonian-like neurological presentation with damage to the brain secondary to manganese (Mn) deposition. Here we describe a case of a patient with a neurological presentation of liver disease with a review of the current CAHD literature. In conclusion, CAHD is a rare condition occurring in liver cirrhosis that should always be considered in patients with neurological manifestations of chronic liver disease.

Doença de Wilson com sinal da face do panda gigante na ressonância magnética de encéfalo / WilsonÆs disease with the face of giant panda sign on magnetic resonance imaging

A Doença de Wilson (DW), é uma desordem hereditária de transmissão genética autossômica recessiva, que altera o metabolismo hepático do cobre e ocasiona seu acúmulo em órgãos e tecidos. Embora alterações na Ressonância Magnética de Encéfalo (RM) não façam parte dos critérios diagnósticos as mesmas podem ser sensíveis para detectar alterações em pacientes com a doença. Os autores descrevem o caso de uma paciente de 22 anos com manifestações neurológicas progressivas cujo diagnóstico de DW foi suspeitado pelas manifestações clínicas associadas as anormalidades na RM. Paciente apresentava alterações no putamen, caudato e tálamo além do chamado sinal do face do panda gigante no mesencéfalo. Um sinal considerado característico da DW

Proton MR spectroscopy in Wilson disease: analysis of 36 cases.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Wilson disease (WD) is rare but one of the few metabolic disorders that can possibly benefit from effective available treatments. The literature regarding proton MR spectroscopy (MRS) in WD is scarce and controversial. The purpose of this study was to determine the brain metabolic changes due to WD by using MRS. To our knowledge, this is the first time that MRS was performed in such a large sample of patients with WD. METHODS: Thirty-six patients with WD and 37 healthy volunteers were examined with MRS in the parieto-occipital cortex, frontal white matter, and basal ganglia (BG). Ratios of the following metabolites were calculated in relation to creatine (Cr): N-acetylaspartate (NAA), choline (Cho), myo-inositol (mI), and glutamine/glutamate (Glx). The mean peak line width was measured on each spectrum. RESULTS: Compared with control subjects, patients with WD had significantly decreased NAA/Cr ratios in the three studied areas (P < .005) and an increased mI/Cr ratio in the BG (P < .001). Cho/Cr and Glx/Cr did not differ between the groups. The mean peak line in the BG was wider in patients than in control subjects. CONCLUSION: WD is unequivocally associated with MRS changes that could possibly be assigned to neuronal loss (in the three studied areas), to gliosis, and to iron and/or copper deposition in the BG.

Wilson disease: novel mutations in the ATP7B gene and clinical correlation in Brazilian patients.

Wilson disease (WD) is a rare inherited autosomal recessive disorder caused by a defect in a metal transporting P-type ATPase, resulting in copper overload in various tissues and cells. The aim was to assess both the phenotype in Brazilian WD patients and the corresponding ATP7B genotype. Sixty subjects belonging to 46 pedigrees diagnosed as WD were included in this study. Direct sequencing of all 21 exons within ATP7B and their flanking introns was performed. Demographic, clinical, laboratory and histopathological data at the time of diagnosis were obtained. We identified twenty-five mutations, twelve of them reported for the first time. The c.3402delC mutation had the highest allelic frequency (30.8%), followed by the c.2123T>C (p.L708P) (16.7%). Exons 8 and 15 were the site of 62.5% of the mutations. The common European mutation c.3207C>A (p.H1069Q) was not present at all. Phenotype varied greatly among individuals with the same ATP7B genotype. Our data confirm the heterogeneity of ATP7B genotype in Brazilian WD patients. The mutational spectrum is compatible with the Brazilian history of Mediterranean immigration; however, new mutations, and different frequencies and phenotype associated with the previously known mutations characterize this population. Exons 8 and 15 should be preferentially screened in WD cases from Brazil. Phenotype variation among subjects with the same ATP7B genotype suggests that modifying factors play an additional role in the pathogenesis of WD.

Copper interaction on the long-term potentiation.

The role of copper on the CA1 piramidal neurons and their sinaptic connections to the Schaffer's collateral was investigated using the field excitatory post-sinaptic potential (fEPSP). The same fEPSP was used to study copper effects on Long-term potentiation (LTP). We have found that copper 10 microM has an inhibitory action on the fEPSP. Similar effects were demonstrated with 10 microM of GABA. Moreover, copper showed a strong inhibitory action on the consolidated LTP. However, copper washout left a significant and persistent excitatory response. In our opinion, copper shows a dual sinaptic effect depending on the sinaptic experience.

[Wilson disease. Report of a case of autopsy with copper tissue quantification and electronic microscopy]. / Enfermedad de Wilson. Informe de un caso de autopsia con cuantificación tisular de cobre y microscopia electrónica.

UNLABELLED: Wilson's disease is a rare autosomal recessive disorder of copper metabolism. Kinnear Wilson described the entity in 1912 and considered it to be a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system associated with asymptomatic cirrhosis. Gene linkage analysis has localized the genetic defect on chromosome 13. CLINICAL CASE: Woman of 15 years of age. She began with amenorrhea at 8 months of evolution, and acholia and hepatomegaly 1 month before her death. The viral serology panel was negative. She evolved with severe hepatic insufficiency and died. The quantitation of copper dose postmortem in hepatic tissue by atomic absorption spectrophotometry resulted in 250.57 micrograms/g. Electronic microscopy showed dense bodies in the mitochondria. Young adolescents frequently develop hepatic insufficiency as a first manifestation of Wilson's disease. Histologically, some morphology data such as the glucogenized naked nuclei, microvesticular fatty change, Mallory bodies, and hepatic regeneration, but the definitive diagnosis was decreased serum ceruloplasmin level, quantitation of copper in tissue, electron microscopy, and more recently, the molecular biology or genetic alterations.

[Acute hemolytic crisis followed by fulminant hepatic failure with fatal outcome, as a first clinical manifestation of Wilson's disease]. / Crise hemolítica aguda seguida por insuficiência hepática fulminante com evolução fatal, como primeira manifestação clínica da doença de Wilson.

We describe in this work a clinical case of a female patient aged 21 years, bearer of Wilson's disease, a first clinical manifestation of the disease occurred as an acute hemolytic crisis followed by fulminant hepatic failure evolving to death after 26 days' internment. The definitive diagnosis was obtained only as a quantitative measurement of hepatic copper from the necropsy material. The search for Kayser-Fleischer ring was negative and the serum ceruloplasmin level was 9 mg/dl (15 to 60). No involvement of the central nervous system was noted from the pathologic analysis. The patient presented two Coombs negative hemolytic crises during the internment; the first on being admitted to hospital and the second after a transjugular hepatic biopsy carried out on the 16th day after internment. The last hemolytic crisis was accompanied by an increase of serum and urinary copper levels. On this occasion the patient evolved to a progressive hepatic failure with severe jaundice and hepatic encephalopathy. We are presenting the clinical-biochemical evolution of the patient and we shall discuss the existent hypotheses to the pathophysiology of this rare form for manifestation of the Wilson's disease as well the diagnostic difficulties.

[Hepatolenticular degeneration: critical evaluation of the diagnostic criteria in 95 cases]. / Degeneração hepatolenticular: avaliação crítica dos critérios diagnósticos em 95 casos.

Ninety-five cases of hepatolenticular degeneration have been studied, focusing particularly the clinical and laboratory characterization of the disease. On the clinical viewpoint the variability of the starting symptoms and the frequency of the Kayser-Fleischer rings were analyzed. As regards the laboratory findings the ceruloplasmin, blood and urinary copper, and aminoaciduria levels have been evaluated, as well as the radiological and scintillographic study of joints and bones, cranial computerized tomography and liver biopsy. In 54.4% of the cases the opening clinical picture was neurological, in 31.1% hepatic, in 14.4% psychiatric, in 7.8% osteoarticular, in 2.2% ophtalmologic (Kayser-Fleischer rings), in 1.1% hematologic (hemolytic anemia), and in 1.1% cardiac. Kayser-Fleischer rings were present in 84 of the 92 cases in which they have been searched for (91.3%). Concerning the laboratory findings, hypoceruloplasminemia was found in 98.8% of the cases in which it was investigated, hyperaminoaciduria in 94.7%, hypocupremia in 87.0%, increased cupruresis in 78.2%, osteoporosis in 79.4%, scintillographic changes of the joints in 67.6%; the CT-scan, performed in 11 cases, showed low attenuation areas in the basal ganglia of 2 patients. The significance of the mentioned laboratory findings and the presence of the Kayser-Fleischer rings for the diagnosis of Wilson's disease is discussed.

Laboratory measures of copper metabolism in the differentiation of chronic active hepatitis and Wilson disease in children.

The accuracy of the serum ceruloplasmin level in distinguishing chronic active hepatitis from Wilson disease was compared to the 24-hour urinary copper excretion and hepatic copper content in 20 untreated patients with chronic active hepatitis and 25 with Wilson disease. Serum ceruloplasmin levels were decreased in five patients (25%) with chronic active hepatitis and were normal in seven patients (28%) with Wilson disease at the time of diagnosis. The 24-hour urinary copper excretion failed to provide accurate discrimination between the two groups, being elevated in all patients with Wilson disease and in five of eight patients with chronic active hepatitis studied. All patients with Wilson disease had hepatic copper levels greater than 400 microgram/gm dry weight, whereas patients with chronic active hepatitis had levels less than 300 microgram/gm dry weight. The discriminatory value of hepatic copper concentration makes this the most reliable test for differentiating chronic active hepatitis and Wilson disease in children and adolescents. The serum ceruloplasmin level may not be significantly accurate for definitive diagnosis in this age group.