Wilson's Disease

Wilson's disease is a rare inherited disorder of copper metabolism, caused by mutations in the ATP7B gene that impair the body's ability to excrete excess copper, allowing it to accumulate to toxic levels in the liver, brain and other organs. It can cause liver disease, tremor, difficulty speaking and moving, and psychiatric symptoms, and a characteristic brownish ring of copper deposits, known as a Kayser-Fleischer ring, can sometimes be seen around the cornea. British neurologist Samuel Alexander Kinnier Wilson described the condition in 1912, linking a family pattern of liver degeneration to a specific brain disorder for the first time.