Brain magnetic resonance imaging and severity of neurological disease in Wilson’s disease — the neuroradiological correlations

Introduction Wilson’s disease (WD) is a genetic disorder with pathological copper accumulation and associated clinical symptoms in various organs, particularly the liver and brain. Neurological disease is assessed with the clinical Unified Wilson’s Disease Rating Scale (UWDRS). There is a lack of quantitative objective markers evaluating brain involvement. Recently, a semiquantitative brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scale has been proposed, which combines acute toxicity and chronic damage measures into a total score. The relationship between MRI brain pathology and the MRI scale with disease form and neurological severity was studied in a large cohort. Methods We retrospectively assessed 100 newly diagnosed treatment-naïve patients with WD with respect to brain MRI pathology and MRI scores (acute toxicity, chronic damage, and total) and analyzed the relationship with disease form and UWDRS part II (functional impairment) and part III (neurological deficits) scores. Results Most patients had the neurological form of WD (55%) followed by hepatic (31%) and presymptomatic (14%). MRI examination revealed WD-typical abnormalities in 56% of patients, with higher pathology rates in neurological cases (83%) than in hepatic (29%) and presymptomatic (7%) cases. UWDRS part II and III scores correlated with the MRI acute toxicity score ( r = 0.55 and 0.55, respectively), chronic damage score ( r = 0.39 and 0.45), and total score (0.45 and 0.52) (all P < 0.01). Conclusions Brain MRI changes may be present even in patients without neurological symptoms, although not frequently. The semiquantitative MRI scale correlated with the UWDRS and appears to be a complementary tool for severity of brain injury assessment in WD patients.