Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 21, 2017; 23(43): 7716-7726
Published online Nov 21, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i43.7716
Epidemiology and natural history of Wilson’s disease in the Chinese: A territory-based study in Hong Kong between 2000 and 2016
Ka-Shing Cheung, Wai-Kay Seto, James Fung, Lung-Yi Mak, Ching-Lung Lai, Man-Fung Yuen
Ka-Shing Cheung, Wai-Kay Seto, James Fung, Lung-Yi Mak, Ching-Lung Lai, Man-Fung Yuen, Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong 999077, China
Wai-Kay Seto, James Fung, Ching-Lung Lai, Man-Fung Yuen, State Key Laboratory for Liver Research, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Author contributions: Cheung KS designed and performed the study, were involved in statistical analysis and interpretation of the data, and wrote the manuscript; Seto WK and Mak LY performed the study, statistical analysis and interpretation of the data; Fung J, Lai CL and Yuen MF revised and edited the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by The Institutional Review Board of The University of Hong Kong/Hospital Authority, Hong Kong West Cluster.
Informed consent statement: The Institutional Review Board of The University of Hong Kong/Hospital Authority waived the need for written informed consent as there were no direct contact with eligible subjects and no additional blood taking.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Man-Fung Yuen, Professor, Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong 999077, China. mfyuen@hkucc.hku.hk
Telephone: +852-22553984 Fax: +852-28162863
Received: July 28, 2017
Peer-review started: July 30, 2017
First decision: August 29, 2017
Revised: September 25, 2017
Accepted: September 28, 2017
Article in press: September 28, 2017
Published online: November 21, 2017
Core Tip

Core tip: There are few studies on the epidemiology and natural history of Wilson’s disease in Asia. The present territory-based study was the first to describe both the epidemiology and natural history of Wilson’s disease over a long period of time (a span of 17 years from 2000 to 2016) in the Chinese. There was a significant increase in the number of cases of Wilson’s disease in Hong Kong. The prognosis was favorable except for those with cirrhosis or concomitant viral hepatitis.