[Factors affecting the concentration of serum ceruloplasmin in Wilson-Konovalov disease]

Abstract

An oxidase activity of ceruloplasmin was studied in blood serum of 335 patients with Wilson-Konovalov disease before specific copper-obviating treatment. Coefficient for calculation of concentration units depending on optic density was estimated by means of copper content measurement in ceruloplasmin. The well-known fact of ceruloplasmin content decrease in the Wilson-Konovalov disease was supplemented by the new data involving age-sex differences and the age-dependent dynamics as compared with healthy persons and with a group of 827 patients with other neurological diseases. Under conditions of the pathology concentration of ceruloplasmin was minimal in teenagers and in men it was lower than in women (62.1 +/- 4.0% and 88.2 +/- 5.0%, respectively, P < 0.001). Statistically distinct differences in content of ceruloplasmin were found in the patients of 15-19 years old and 20-24 years old as compared with the older age groups. Higher content of ceruloplasmin, exceeding the normal level about 200 mg/l, was most often detected at the preneurological step of the disease as compared with the neurological period (8.8% and 2.3%, respectively).