Copper clearance in a subgroup of patients with chorea.

ABSTRACT

Rat studies recently have suggested that the corpus striatum appears to be selectively and markedly affected by copper deficiencies beginning in the post-weanling period. A study of copper clearances has revealed that four out of five patients with chorea have depressed clearances between 0.00674 and .00313 (reference range 0.0137-0.0404 cc/min). The patients with depressed copper clearances had psychiatric illness themselves or in first-degree relatives. In the case of one patient, copper supplementation resulted in an abatement of symptoms that reversed on a single-blind crossover.