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Review
. 2018 Jun 15;18(1):85.
doi: 10.1186/s12883-018-1085-5.

Wilson's disease combined with systemic lupus erythematosus: a case report and literature review

Affiliations
Review

Wilson's disease combined with systemic lupus erythematosus: a case report and literature review

Yun Zhang et al. BMC Neurol. .

Abstract

Background: Wilson's disease (WD) is an inherited disorder in which defective biliary excretion of copper leads to its accumulation, particularly in the liver and brain. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multi-system disorder that can manifest in any system. Cases with concomitant WD and SLE, unrelated to treatment with penicillamine, have been rarely reported.

Case presentation: We report a case of a young woman who had typical neuropsychiatric symptoms and laboratory tests results of WD. She also had concomitant massive hematuria and proteinuria, fever, multiple positive autoimmune antibodies, hypocomplementemia, abnormal lumbar puncture findings and evidence of Sjögren syndrome, which are all rare in WD. Hence, we considered the diagnosis of SLE. Tapering of steroid dosage also confirmed the diagnosis.

Conclusion: Wilson's disease and SLE have varied clinical manifestations. Herein, we reported a rare case in which the two conditions concomitantly existed. In clinical practice, differential diagnosis of the two diseases is necessary for patients with hepatic, neurological, and psychiatric manifestations.

Keywords: Systemic lupus erythematosus; Wilson’s disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This case report was approved by the Ethics Board of Peking Union Medical College Hospital.

Consent for publication

Written informed consent was obtained from the patient and her parents for publication of this case report and any accompanying images. A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Editor of this journal.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
MRI of the patient showed symmetric abnormal signals with low signal in T1-weighted image, and high signals in T2-weighted and FLAIR images of bilateral basal ganglia, thalamus, midbrain, and pons
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Sequence analysis of ATP7B in the family

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