Impact of COVID-19 on the clinical status of patients with Wilson disease

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has greatly impacted health systems. Many guidelines on chronic liver diseases have been released to optimize the use of medical resources and patient management. However, most of these guidelines have been established through expert consensus because the existing data do not provide strong evidence for developing effective recommendations. As Wilson disease (WD) is a rare chronic liver disease, the impact of COVID-19 on the clinical status of patients with WD is unclear. The present study showed a marked shortage of medical resources for clinically managing patients with WD during the pandemic. Although patients with WD who consistently took anticopper therapy showed no significant differences in hepatic and extrahepatic markers before and after the pandemic, their complication incidences, especially the infection incidence, were significantly increased during the study period. Therefore, patients with WD should be encouraged to adhere to anticopper therapy and be closely monitored to prevent infections and other complications. The present study provides a clinical basis for further managing WD during the pandemic.

Keywords: Coronavirus disease 2019, Wilson disease, Clinical status, Complications, Infections, Anticopper therapy

Core Tip: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a long-lasting impact on the quality of care for patients with cirrhosis. Although many guidelines have been released for the rational use of medical resources, few clinical data are available to support these guidelines. The clinical features of patients with Wilson disease during the COVID-19 pandemic remain unclear. We compared the clinical features of patients with Wilson disease before and after the pandemic to clarify the impact of COVID-19 on these patients and provide a basis for their clinical management.