Silent Wilsons Disease Unmasked By Hepatitis E Case Study

Abstract

Wilson disease is a rare autosomal recessive inherited disorder of copper metabolism that is characterized by excessive deposition of copper in the liver, brain, and other tissues. Hepatitis E is a viral hepatitis caused by infection with a virus called hepatitis E virus. It is one of five known human hepatitis viruses. Although hepatitis E often causes an acute and self-limiting infection with low mortality rates in the western world, it bears a high risk of developing chronic hepatitis in immune compromised patients with substantial mortality rates. Reveal of Wilson’s disease with viral hepatitis is reported earlier in the literature as a rare association. Here we report a case of report 24 year old female patient with biochemical, serological, hematological and histopathological evidence of underlying Wilson’s disease complicated by hepatitis E virus infection. In this case the patient developed acute hepatic decompensation indicating that HEV plays a part in the acute hepatic decompensation seen in cases of unrecognized Wilson’s disease.